CABI - Combretum indicum (Rangoon creeper)

C. indicum is a deciduous climbing plant native to Asia and possibly tropical Africa where it is abundant, but the species is widely cultivated in the Neotropics (Acevedo-Rodriguez, 2005; USDA-ARS, 2015). It is a “rampant grower” (Brown and Knox, 2013) and is listed in the Global Compendium of Weeds as “agricultural weed, cultivation escape, environmental weed, garden thug, naturalised, sleeper weed, weed” (Randall, 2012). It is reported to be invasive in Cuba (Oviedo-Prieto et al., 2012) as well as the Seychelles, Australia, and New Caledonia (PIER, 2015), is included in the Taiwan Invasive Species Database (2015), and is a persistent weed in Puerto Rico (Liogier and Martorell, 2000). It has been widely cultivated as an ornamental for its aromatic flowers, as a hedge climber, and for use in traditional medicine, resulting in the species’ widespread distribution to all tropical regions of the world.