Gnetum gnemonL.

Spanish joint-firbuko

WFO wfo-0000795591 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Cheongweei Gan
fig. a Cheongweei Gan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-20 / obs. 199017206
Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Samuel Lee
fig. b Samuel Lee, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183379608
Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Cheongweei Gan
fig. c Cheongweei Gan, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 56875891
Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Franz Anthony
fig. d Franz Anthony, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 52751785
Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. e Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 48941240
Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. f Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46699799
Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. g Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46988263
Gnetum gnemon, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. h Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46890004

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Gnetum gnemon is native: China South-Central, Tibet, Assam, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam, Queensland, Caroline Is., Fiji, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu China South-CentralTibetAssamBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiThailandVietnamQueenslandFiji Nicobar Is.Caroline Is.Vanuatu
Native distribution of Gnetum gnemon, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Fiji FIJ
Santa Cruz Is. SCZ
Vanuatu VAN
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
Tibet CHT
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

Not drawn on the map: Santa Cruz Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 111 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 17.7 °C 23.7 °C 24.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.5 °C 29.2 °C 31.6 °C
Annual rainfall 2,015 mm 2,486 mm 3,586 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 81 mm 332 mm 590 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 111 research-grade observations of Gnetum gnemon that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 20 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Gnemon brunoniana (Griff.) Kuntze
  • Gnemon griffitii (Parl.) Kuntze
  • Gnemon ovalifolia (Poir.) Kuntze
  • Gnetum acutatum Miq.
  • Gnetum brunonianum Griff.
  • Gnetum domesticum Reinw. ex E.A.Duchesne
  • Gnetum gnemon f. stipitatum Markgr.
  • Gnetum gnemon f. volubile Markgr.
  • Gnetum gnemon var. domesticum Markgr.
  • Gnetum gnemon var. laurinum Blume
  • Gnetum gnemon var. lucidum Blume
  • Gnetum gnemon var. majusculum Blume
  • Gnetum gnemon var. ovalifolium (Poir.) Blume
  • Gnetum gnemon var. sylvestris (Brongn.) Parl.
  • Gnetum griffithii Parl.
  • Gnetum ovalifolium Poir.
  • Gnetum polystachyum Reinw. ex Blume
  • Gnetum silvestris Brongn.
  • Gnetum sylvestre Brongn.
  • Gnetum vinosum Elmer

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.