A hanging group of flowers with vibrant jade green petals growing next to a pong with huge waterlilies growing in it

Strongylodon macrobotrys

Jade vine

Family: Fabaceae

Other common names: 绿玉藤, 翡翠葛 (Chinese Simplified), ヒスイカズラ (Japanese), tayábak (Filipino), Стронгилодон крупнокистевой (Russian), trepadora de jade (Spanish), พวงหยก (Thai)

IUCN Red List status: Not Evaluated

Plant description

The jade vine grows as a woody vine, or liana, with stems reaching up to 18m. The leaves grow up to 25cm long, in a cluster of three leaflets at the end of a stalk. The flowers grow in vertical dangling clusters that can reach up to 3m. The individual flowers have vibrant blue-green petals that grow in a double-hooked shape. If pollinated, the jade vine produces green fleshy pods, about 15cm long that contain around 12 seeds.

Read the scientific profile for the jade vine

Two long hanging spikes of bright blue flowers in front of green leaves — Jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) flowers, Daderot on Wikimedia Commons CC0

Large curved pale blue green flowers — Jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) flowers © Ori Fragman-Sapir

Large green seed pods in front of leaves — Jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) seed pods, Andrew McRobb © RBG Kew

Plant uses

Cultural

An image of the flowers of the jade vine appears on the reverse of the Philippine five-peso coin.

The jade vine is a popular ornamental grown in conservatories and glasshouses.

Food and drink

The flowers of the jade vide are edible, although not commonly eaten.

Did you know?

In 2016, a cousin of the jade vine with purple flowers was newly named to science.
The genus name Strongylodon means “rounded tooth”, in references to the curved tooth-like shape of the flowers.
The species name macrobotrys means “long cluster of grapes”, referring to the clusters of flowers.

Where in the world?

A map of the world showing where the jade vine is native and introduced to

Native: Philippines

Introduced: India, Malaya, New Guinea, Trinidad-Tobago

Habitat:

Tropical rainforests

Find it in our gardens

Kew Gardens

A botanic garden in southwest London with the world’s most diverse living plant collection.

Princess of Wales Conservatory, Palm House

View map of Kew Gardens

Flowers: Feb, Mar, Apr, May

Foliage: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

Our work

In the wild, the jade vine is pollinated by bats, which hang upside down to drink the flower’s nectar. The flower brushes pollen onto the bat's head while it drinks, so that when it flies to another plant, it pollinates the new flower while picking up more nectar to continue the cycle. Unfortunately, bats don't call the glasshouses of Kew Gardens home. That's where our horticulturalists step in

Using their hands, the team have learned to mimic the effect of the bats. This method was first used in 1995, when Kew researcher Chrissie Prychid was able to get the jade vine in the Palm House to produce fruit pods for the first time in over thirty years. The pods were so heavy they had to be supported with nets to stop them from falling before they were fully ripe.

Understanding how to grow rare and endangered plants at Kew is key in developing new techniques which can be shared with conservationists around the world to help them protect local biodiversity.