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Trichostigma octandrum
Also called White Hoop, Basket Wiss, Hoop Vine
Hoopvine is a scrambling, twining shrub or vine native to the Neotropics, grown as an ornamental and used for fiber and medicine. Keep it in a humid, warm, frost-free spot with reliable moisture and support for its climbing stems.
Trichostigma octandrum is a species of flowering plant in the family Petiveriaceae. It was formerly placed in the pokeweed family, Phytolaccaceae. It is native to the Neotropics. It is known in English as hoopvine (Florida), black basket wythe, cooper's wythe, basket wiss or basket with, and hoop with. Common French names include liane pannier or liane a barques ('basket vine' or 'barrel vine'). Spanish names include bejuco canesta, sotacaballo, and pabello, (Puerto Rico, Central America, basket vine, substitute horse, or pavilion). The plant has medicinal and fiber uses.
It is found Florida, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America as far as Argentina. In Puerto Rico, it grows in farm and urban areas, where the species grows on roadsides, fencerows, woodlots, brushy pastures, brushy vacant lots, and stream bottom galleries. The shrub also covers windfalls, fences, rocks, and forms mounds of tangled stems to 2 m high in open areas. Hoopvine grows on soils of all textures in a wide range of pH’s derived from both igneous, metamorphic (including ultramafics) and sedimentary (including limestone) rocks. In Puerto Rico, it grows in areas receiving from 900 to 2500 mm of precipitation. The plant also grows in tropical swamps near the edges of hammocks and brakes. It is most common near the coasts, but also occurs at rare intervals in the Florida Everglades.
Both the split stems and bast fibers have been used to make barrel hoops, baskets, bent furniture and crafts. Young leaves may be boiled and eaten as vegetables, discarding the bitter water. It is grown ornamentally and is a large sturdy plant that may be trained into bowers and enclosures. The purple juice from the berries stains, and may form a dye. Vegetative parts may be used for heart palpitations. A powder of the bark may be used to treat colds and water retention. Colombians use the leaves to help cure wounds. Hispaniolans use a tea to help with asthma or choking. The fruits are also used in medicines. Related genera Petivera and Phytolacca are known to have many bioactive compounds.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Trichostigma octandrum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
