Freycinetia is a genus of about 150-180 species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s native to the tropics of Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

 and the Pacific

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

, belonging to the family Pandanaceae

Pandanaceae

Pandanaceae is a family of flowering plants native to the tropics of the Old World. Such a family has been widely recognized by taxonomists.Pandanaceae are trees or climbing or scrambling shrubs distributed in the Old World tropics and are adapted from sea level in salted beaches to mountain cloud...

. The genus was named for Admiral Louis de Freycinet

Louis de Freycinet

Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was a French navigator. He circumnavigated the earth, and was one of the first to produce a comprehensive map of the coastline of Australia.-Biography:...

, a 19th-century French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 explorer. They are 65 species of dioecious, climbing or scrambling shrubs of the family Pandanaceae native to the Old World Tropics from sea level to mountain cloud forest

Cloud forest

A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and...

.

Selected species:

• Freycinetia arborea
  Freycinetia arborea
  The Ieie is a densely branched, brittle, woody climber in the screwpalm family, Pandanaceae that is endemic to the Pacific Islands. Ieie is found in moist forest on the Hawaiian, Marquesas, Austral, Society, and Cook Islands. It grows into the forest canopy, attaching itself to a host tree using...
  
  Gaudich.
  Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré
  Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré was a French botanist.He was born in Angoulême, the son of J-J. Gaudichaud and Rose Gaudichaud. He studied pharmacology at Cognac and Angoulême. He also studied chemistry and herbology.His greatest claim to fame was serving as botanist on a circumglobal expedition from...
  
  - Ieie (Hawaii
  Hawaii
  Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
  
  , French Polynesia
  French Polynesia
  French Polynesia is an overseas country of the French Republic . It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory...
  
  , Cook Islands
  Cook Islands
  The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...
  
  )
• Freycinetia auriculata
  Freycinetia auriculata
  Freycinetia auriculata is a species of plant in the Pandanaceae family. It is endemic to the Philippines.-Source:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 21 August 2007....
  
  Merr.
  Elmer Drew Merrill
  Elmer Drew Merrill was an American botanist, specializing in the flora of the Asia-Pacific region.He was born in East Auburn, Maine, and attended the University of Maine where he received a B.S. in 1898...
  
  (Philippines
  Philippines
  The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
  
  )
• Freycinetia banksii
  Kiekie (plant)
  Kiekie is a densely branched, brittle, woody climber native to New Zealand. It is a member of the screwpalm family Pandanaceae....
  
  A.Cunn.
  Allan Cunningham (botanist)
  Allan Cunningham was an English botanist and explorer, primarily known for his travels in New South Wales to collect plants.- Early life :...
  
  - Kiekie (New Zealand
  New Zealand
  New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
  
  )
• Freycinetia cumingiana Gaudich.
• Freycinetia maxima Merr.
• Freycinetia mariannensis Merr.
• Freycinetia multiflora
  Freycinetia multiflora
  Freycinetia multiflora is a species of flowering plant in the Pandanaceae family....
  
  Merr.
• Freycinetia ponapensis Martelli
• Freycinetia storckii Seem.
  Berthold Carl Seemann
  Berthold Carl Seemann 25 February 1825 Hanover, Germany - 10 October 1871 Nicaragua, Central America, was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America....
  
  
• Freycinetia urvilleana Hombr. & Jacq. = Freycinetia milnei Seem.