Tetrastigma is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. The plants are lianas that climb with tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterized by their four-lobed stigmas.[2] The species are found in subtropical and tropical regions of Asia, Malaysia, and Australia, where they grow in primary rainforest, gallery forest and monsoon forest and moister woodland. Species of this genus are notable as being the sole hosts of parasitic plants in the family Rafflesiaceae, one of which, Rafflesia arnoldii, produces the largest single flower in the world.[3]Tetrastigma is the donor species for horizontal gene transfer to Sapria and Rafflesia due to multiple gene theft events.[4]
^Chen, Pingting; Chen, Longqing; Wen, Jun (2011). "The first phylogenetic analysis of Tetrastigma (Miq.) Planch., the host of Rafflesiaceae". Taxon. 60 (2): 499–512. doi:10.1002/tax.602017.
^Acta Palaeobotanica - 43(1): 9-49, January 2003 - Early Miocene carpological material from the Czech part of the Zittau Basin - Vasilis Teodoridis
^Messian to Zanclean vegetation and climate of Northern and Central Italy by Adele Bertini & Edoardo Martinetto, Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana, 47 (2), 2008, 105-121. Modena, 11 lugio 2008.
^Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521866453 (hardback), ISBN9780521685535 (paperback). pp 376