Capitula/heads

Discoid,   6-7 mm long
Involucres: cylindric with 4 principle bracts; phyllaries green or pinkish to purplish, linear to lanceolate, 5-6 mm long, apices acuminate, outer surfaces glabrous to puberulant.

Common Name(s)

climbing hempvine, climbing hempweed

Disk Flowers

corollas: pinkish to purplish, sometimes white with tubes greenish;  3-5.4 mm, 5-lobed at the summit, sparsely gland-dotted, lobes triangular;

anthers: 5, brownish gold

styles: bases may be slightly enlarged, glabrous, branches ± filiform, weakly club-shaped

Ecology

Swamps, wet thickets, hammocks, seeps, springs, margins of lakes, and other wet open areas.

Family

Asteraceae (Compositae); Aster family

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Fruit

Achene or cypselae dark brown to blackish, 1.8-2.2 mm, gland-dotted, 5-angled;

pappus of ca. 35 white or pinkish to purplish bristles, 4-4.5 mm long.

Leaves

Opposite, simple, petiolate

Petioles: 20-50 mm, glabrous or puberulant

Leaf blades: triangular to somewhat ovate, 3-15 x 2-11 cm, bases cordate to hastate, margins subentire to undulate, crenate, or dentate, apices acuminate (tips often caudate), faces pubescent

Plant and Stem Features

Twining, climbing, or sprawlig herbaceous vine; stems +/- 6-angled to terete, glabrate to densely pilose; internodes 8-15 cm

Ray Flowers

none

References

Conquist, A. 1980. Vascular Flora of the Southeastern United States, Vol. I, Asteraceae. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

Godfrey, R. K. and J. W. Wooten. 1981. Aquatic and Wetland Plants ofSoutheastern United States, Dicotyledons. University of Georgia Press, Athens.

Holmes, W. C.  2006. Mikania Willd.. In: Flora North American North of Mexico. Edited by Flora North America editorial committee. Vol 21. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.

USDA, NRCS. 2006. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 4 December 2006). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

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Synonyms

Eupatorium scandens Linnaeus

 Mikania scandens var. pubescens (Muhlenberg) Torrey and A. Gray