Anredera cordifolia Seeds | Madeira Vine
LATIN NAME: Anredera cordifolia
COMMON NAME: Madeira Vine
Plant Profile
Madeira Vine is a vigourous twining climber of the basella family from South America, with glossy, heart-shaped, fleshy leaves and, from late summer, long sprays of small, fragrant, cream flowers. Its signature is the chain of warty aerial tubers that hangs along the older stems, each one a propagule ready to drop and root.
It climbs by twining, rapidly covering trellises, hedges and trees in warm climates, and it stores food in tuberous roots underground. The growth is its attraction and its danger: in frost-free regions it smothers native vegetation, and several countries treat it as a serious invasive. In its native range it scrambles through forest and scrub on slopes from sea level to mid-altitudes, its tubers storing water and food that carry it through dry spells.
Science & Biotechnology
Its smothering habit has been studied in invasion ecology, particularly in Australia, where it overwhelms bushland edges by sheer weight of climbing stems and aerial tubers, and biological control research has examined a leaf-feeding fungus as a management tool.
The plant’s storage organs have also drawn botanical interest: aerial tubers that detach and establish new plants make it a model for studies of clonal dispersal, and its regrowth from tiny root fragments frustrates standard control methods. Australian authorities have trialled the rust fungus <em>Puccinia spegazzinii</em> as a biological control, and containment research continues because every fragment of root and every fallen tuber can restart an infestation. Studies of its aerial tuber production have quantified how many propagules a single vine sheds in a season, data that underpins the containment rules now applied across eastern Australia.
Uses & Benefits
In climates where it can be contained, it is a fast ornamental screen and, in South America, a traditional cooked green and tuber; the young leaves are eaten like spinach in parts of its native range.
Anyone considering it for culinary use or outdoor planting should check regional regulations first, because in Australia it is a Weed of National Significance and similarly controlled elsewhere; in frost-prone climates pots and hard pruning keep it manageable. Where winters are cold enough to check it, gardeners grow it as a fast annual screen, and its small tubers are cooked as a vegetable in parts of South America. Its fragrant cream flower sprays are attractive to small night-flying insects, and in its native range the plant is part of the forest-edge flora rather than the invader it becomes abroad.
Growing from Seed
Sow the seed into a loose, well-drained mix and keep it warm and moist, providing a support early, because the seedlings twine within weeks. Germination is improved by nicking the hard seed coat.
In a warm climate, grow it only in a container and cut it back hard each year, collecting every aerial tuber that drops; in a cool climate it dies back in winter and rarely sets the tubers that make it invasive elsewhere. Never compost the aerial tubers or root fragments; dry them on a hard surface until dead, because compost heaps rarely reach temperatures that kill them. Give it a deep pot and a strong tripod; the vine constricts around thin supports, so anything narrower than a broom handle will be swallowed within a season.
Our Take
A climber of two characters: a quick, glossy screen where winters keep it in check, and a serious weed where they do not. Know your climate before it takes the fence.
Related Reading
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