In 1769, during explorer
Lieutenant James Cook's first voyage of discovery, botanists
Joseph Banks and
Daniel Solander collected specimens of "supplejack" (
Ripogonum scandens) in New Zealand. The species was described in Solander's unpublished manuscript and was illustrated by
Sydney Parkinson. Cook again visited New Zealand in 1773 during his
second voyage. While anchored at Dusky Bay (now
Dusky Sound) in the
South Island of New Zealand, he remarked in his journal: During this voyage naturalist
Johann Reinhold Forster, assisted by his son
Georg Forster collected plant specimens, the elder Forster offering the following description in his journal: In 1776, the Forsters published the genus
Ripogonum in the second edition of their with
Ripogonum scandens as the type species. The name
Ripogonum is derived from the Greek words (, wickerwork, referring to the long shoots) and (, jointed), from the jointed appearance of the stems. Because the Greek word begins with an aspirate
rho rather than plain rho, classical scholars preferred to transcribe it with rh- rather than r-. Consequently, some early botanists treated the Forsters' spelling as an error to be corrected and the spelling
Rhipogonum was used. Which spelling is correct depends on the interpretation of Article 60 of the
International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, which recommends that the classical transcription rules should be followed when forming new names (Rec. 60A) and also that "the original spelling of a name or epithet is to be retained, except for the correction of typographical or orthographical errors". It has been stated that the Forsters' spelling is probably deliberate and should not be liable to correction in the same way as an accidental typographical error would be. The
International Plant Names Index treats the spelling
Rhipogonum as an "orthographic variant", and the
Index Nominum Genericorum database uses the spelling
Ripogonum, as does the
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families .
Phylogeny and classification Until recently,
Ripogonum was included in the family
Smilacaceae (and earlier in the family
Liliaceae along with other
lilioid monocots) but it has now been separated into its own family
Ripogonaceae. The family name was first formally defined by Conran and Clifford in 1985.
Armen Takhtajan later created the same family without realising it already existed.
Molecular phylogenetic studies since the early 2000s have consistently shown a close relationship between the four families Ripogonaceae,
Philesiaceae, Smilacaceae and the modern narrowly defined Liliaceae. This relationship was confirmed in a 2013 study, which produced the cladogram: }} The authors suggested that the Ripogonaceae and Philesiaceae could be combined into a single family based both on the genetic similarity of their plastids and common morphological features. The
APG III system treats them as two separate families in the Liliales, both distinct from Smilacaceae.
Species Ripogonum contains six described species . •
Ripogonum album , White supplejack – Australia (Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria) & New Guinea •
Ripogonum brevifolium , Small-leaved supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) •
Ripogonum discolor , Prickly supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) •
Ripogonum elseyanum , Hairy supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) •
Ripogonum fawcettianum , Small supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) •
Ripogonum scandens , Supplejack – the sole New Zealand species ==Uses==