Leaf (Non-Flowering Plant Families (University of Hawaii Botany website)).
Gnetum gnemon
Trees or shrubs, up to 22 m tall and 40 cm dbh, without buttresses; sometimes a climbing shrub. Crown narrow, cylindrical, with a single trunk. Bark gray, marked with conspicuous or faint rings. Leaves thin, yellow when dry, tapering at both ends, but varying in shape and size, 7.5-20 × 2.5-10 cm; secondary nerves bent, joining; petiole 6-18 mm. Inflorescences solitary, axillary, simple or once branched, yellowish, 3-6 cm long, collars 3 mm broad. Flowers with broad sporophyll, twice as long as the perianth (3 mm). Sterile flowers globose, tipped or beaked, 2 mm thick, 10-15 in a ring. Inflorescences similar. Flowers 5-8 at each node, globose, tipped or beaked, 3-4 mm long, inner tube exserted by 1 mm. Fruit ripening yellow, then orange-yellow or pink, sessile (exceptionally stalked), ellipsoid, shortly apiculate, 1-3.5 cm long, almost velvety; middle envelope ribbed (Markgraf 1951).
No data as of 2023.03.03.
This is the only species of Gnetum that is actively cultivated, sometimes planted in small orchards, but mostly in mixed gardens. The inner bark was used for fiber; Markgraf (1951) reported that it was "used all over Malaysia for twisting thread, string and cordage. The fibre is strong and durable in seawater and is mostly used for fishing nets and lines; in Papua carrying nets are made from it." Regarding its food use, he stated "G. gnemon is principally cultivated as a fruit tree, the embryo being pounded and eaten roasted, but also cooked in soup. ... The flush and inflorescences of G. gnemon are cooked in soup or eaten as vegetable which in the raw state causes a little itching in the mouth. Trees are sometimes coppiced for rapid production of flush."
It "is grown in plantations in Java and the kernels of the large seeds are beaten flat and fried and either eaten hot or allowed to cool and treated as potato crisps. In the main streets of Java street hawkers sell these 'crisps' from large cans carried on the end of poles" (NTBG 2006).
The epithet gnemon is from "genemo", the species' vernacular name in the Molucca Islands (Markgraf 1951).
LinneĢ [Linnaeus], Carl von. 1767. Systema Naturae, ed. 12, 2:637. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.22.
Markgraf, F. 1951. Gnetaceae. Pp. 336-347 in Flora Malesiana, Series 1, Vol. 4(3). Djakarta: Noordhof-Kolf. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.22.
[NTBG] National Tropical Botanical Garden. 2006. Gnetum gnemon - Meet the Plants - National Tropical Botanical Garden Plant Database. http://www.ntbg.org/plants/plant_details.php?plantid=5570, accessed 2007.01.25.
Carlquist, S. 1994. Wood and bark anatomy of Gnetum gnemon L. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 116(3):203.
Last Modified 2023-03-03
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