Trophis

A large, woody climbing vine, burny vine grows in tropical rainforests, usually using trees for support. It is an important food plant for the larvae of two species of Crow butterflies. Traditionally in Australia, its inner bark was woven into string for netting, and lengths of its vine were dried and used as canoe supports.

Trophis scandens, commonly named burny vine, is a species of large woody vines, constituting part of the fig plant family. They grow naturally in rainforests in Australia and Malesia. In Australia, they grow naturally from Mount Dromedary in coastal south–eastern New South Wales northwards through the eastern coastal regions to north Queensland, Cape York Peninsula and further across coastal regions of northern Australia in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Botanists have recognised and described two subspecies, as follows, one endemic to Lord Howe Island offshore from New South Wales Australia and the type subspecies of mainland Australia and Malesia. Trophis scandens subsp. megacarpa (P.S.Green) P.S.Green – Lord Howe Island endemic Trophis scandens subsp. scandens – NSW, Qld, NT, WA