Paederia foetida – Stinkvine

Paederia foetida - Stinkvine, Stink Vine, Skunkvine, Skunk Vine, Maile Pilau

Paederia foetida - Stinkvine, Stink Vine, Skunkvine, Skunk Vine, Maile Pilau

Paederia foetida - Stinkvine, Stink Vine, Skunkvine, Skunk Vine, Maile Pilau

Paederia foetida - Stinkvine, Stink Vine, Skunkvine, Skunk Vine, Maile Pilau

Plant Name

Scientific Name: Paederia foetida

Synonyms: Gentiana scandens, Paederia scandans, P. scandens

Common Names: Stinkvine, Stink Vine, Skunkvine, Skunk Vine, Maile Pilau

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial, Evergreen

Growth Habit: Shrub, Vine

Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized weed is native to East Asia.

Flower Color: Bicolored white to yellowish ivory and red

Height: To 23 feet (7 m) tall

Description: The flowers are small, tubular, white and finely tufted with woolly hair on the outside, red and lined with purple hair on the inside, and have 5 ruffled, toothed, blunt-tipped lobes. The flowers are followed by rounded, up to 1/4 inch (6 mm) in diameter, shiny, green maturing to orange-brown fruit. The leaves are green, opposite, petiolate, mostly hairless, and oblong-lanceolate to egg-shaped with a pointed tip. The stems are slender and twining.

Stinkvine grows in low to middle elevation disturbed areas and secondary forests, and it is especially common is disturbed mesic (moderately wet) forests, where it can climb over and smother other plants.

Special Characteristics

Butterfly Plant – This is the main larval food plant for the Maile Pilau Hornworm (Macroglossum pyrrhostictum), a frequently day-flying hummingbird moth.

Foul-smelling – Although often scentless, the plants can emit a foul, garbage-like odor, especially on still, humid evenings.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Rubiales
Family: Rubiaceae – Madder family
Genus: Paederia L. – sewer vine
Species: Paederia foetida L. – stinkvine

More About This Plant

Hawaii County Distribution Map