Flora of North America species comparison

climbing with tendril-like petioles and leaf rachises, 3-6 m.

erect, 1.5-4(-7) dm, moderately to densely villous, sometimes sparsely so near nodes.

blade pinnately 3- or 5-foliolate;

leaflets ovate or broadly lanceolate to narrowly deltate, to 6.5 × 3.5 cm, margins entire;

surfaces abaxially glabrous or very sparingly appressed-strigose on major veins.

blade ovate-elliptic to broadly ovate, unlobed, 5-14 × 3.5-11 cm, leathery, prominently reticulate adaxially;

surfaces abaxially glabrous or sparsely villous-tomentose on veins, not glaucous.

axillary, 3-12-flowered cymes or compound cymes or paniculate with cymose subunits.

terminal, flowers solitary;

bracts absent.

bisexual, often some unisexual (staminate) in same inflorescence;

pedicel 1-3.5 cm, slender;

sepals wide-spreading, not recurved, white, linear or elliptic to lanceolate or narrowly obovate, 0.9-2.2 cm, length ca. 2-3 times width, abaxially tomentose along margins, adaxially glabrous;

stamens ca. 50;

filaments glabrous;

staminodes absent;

pistils 5-10.

narrowly urn-shaped;

sepals pale blue-violet to purple, pale green toward tips, lanceolate, 2-4 cm, margins not expanded or 1-3 mm wide, thin or ± thick, not crispate or slightly crispate, tomentose, tips acuminate, spreading to recurved, abaxially glabrous to sparsely villous.

broad, flat, conspicuously rimmed, minutely appressed-silky, sometimes sparsely so;

beak 2-6 cm.

bodies proximally pubescent with silky or sparse short hairs, distally cobwebby-tomentose;

beak 1.5-3(-3.5) cm, proximally silky-tomentose, sparsely appressed-pubescent to nearly glabrous toward tip.

= 16.