Flora of North America species comparison

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

viny, to 4 m, without cobwebby pubescence, nearly glabrous, or moderately pilose-pubescent proximal to 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 mostly 1-pinnate, some simple;

leaflets usually 4-8 plus additional tendril-like terminal leaflet, lanceolate to ovate, unlobed or 2-3-lobed, or most proximal 3-foliolate, 2-12 × 1-5(-6) cm, thin, not conspicuously reticulate;

surfaces abaxially sparsely to densely pilose, not glaucous.

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

axillary, 1-7-flowered;

bracts well above base of peduncle/pedicel.

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.

broadly urn-shaped to bell-shaped;

sepals pale lavender to reddish purple, grading to cream-yellow toward tip, ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm, margins not expanded, very thick, not crispate, tomentose, tips acuminate, recurved, abaxially sparsely to densely pubescent.

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

beak 2-6 cm.

bodies silky-pubescent;

beak 2.5-6 cm, plumose.

= 16.