Cissus verticillata
Cissus
bejuco loco, millionaire vine, possum grape, princess vine, seasonvine, waterwithe treebine
treebine
usually hairy, sometimes glabrous or glabrate;
branchlets succulent to subsucculent when young, becoming woody; growing tips usually hairy;
tendrils 2-branched.
bark adherent;
pith white, continuous through nodes;
tendrils unbranched or 2-branched [3–6-branched], without adhesive discs.
simple;
petiole shorter than blade;
blade oblong to ovate, 5–15 × 2–8 cm, unlobed, margins coarsely to finely serrate, surfaces usually hairy, sometimes glabrous.
simple or palmately compound [pinnately compound].
bisexual or functionally unisexual, leaf-opposed, corymblike cymes, sometimes compound.
greenish or yellowish green.
bisexual or unisexual;
calyx cup-shaped, indistinctly 4-lobed;
petals 4, distinct;
nectary adnate to base of ovary, cup-shaped, entire or 4-lobed;
stamens 4;
style conic or cylindric, elongate.
black, 6–10 mm diam. 2n = 48.
blue-black to black.
1(–4) per fruit.
= 12.
Cissus verticillata
Cissus
Cissus verticillata in the flora area is found in the southern two-thirds of peninsular Florida. The inflorescences of C. verticillata, and less often C. trifoliata, are sometimes greatly expanded and deformed by the smut Mycosyrnix cissi (de Candolle) Beck, with the individual flowers being transformed into subcylindric structures containing the spores of the fungus.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species ca. 350 (2 in the flora).
Cissus antarctica Ventenat, kangaroo vine, has been reported as escaped in California but probably is not naturalized there. Like C. verticillata, it has simple leaves, but it can be distinguished from that species by having rusty to brown, appressed (versus grayish white, erect) hairs on branchlets and leaves, prominent domatia in the abaxial secondary vein axils (versus no domatia), and dark blue (versus black) fruits.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaves simple, blade unlobed, surfaces usually hairy, sometimes glabrous. | C. verticillata |
1. Leaves usually 3-foliolate, sometimes simple and blade 3-lobed, rarely unlobed, surfaces glabrous. | C. trifoliata |
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
