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houblon japonais, Japanese hop, Japanese hop(s)

Habit Herbs, annual, vining, 0.5-2.5 m.
Stems

usually branched.

Leaves

blade cordate, palmately 5-9-lobed, 5-12 cm, margins of lobes serrulate, apex acuminate;

surfaces abaxially with veins pubescent, with stiff hairs, glands yellow, sessile, discoid, adaxially margins of younger leaf blades with stiff cystolithic hairs.

Inflorescences

staminate inflorescences erect, 15-25 cm, flower anthers without glands; pistillate inflorescences spikes, conelike, ovoid;

bracteole ovate-orbiculate, 7-10 mm, pilose, margins densely ciliate-hairy.

Infructescences

pendulous, green, conelike, ovoid to oblong, (1-)1.5-3(-4) cm;

bracteoles without yellow glands.

Achenes

yellow-brown, ovoid-orbicular, inflated to lenticular, 4-5 mm, glandless.

2n

= 20, including 6 chromosomes concerned with sex determination.

Humulus japonicus

Phenology Flowering early-mid summer.
Habitat Roadsides, fencerows, waste places, riverbanks
Elevation 0-1000 m (0-3300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DE; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; NC; ND; NE; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON; QC; Asia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Although I have no records from New Hampshire, the state is within the geographic range of Humulus japonicus.

Variegated forms of Humulus japonicus, cultivated as ornamentals, are sometimes spontaneous. The vernacular name Japanese hop(s) is occasionally misapplied to H. lupulus var. cordifolius (Miquel) Maximowicz, a variety not found in North America.

The disposition of the name Humulus scandens (Loureiro) Merrill, based on Antidesma scandens Loureiro, is problematic. E. D. Merrill (1935) was convinced that the name A. scandens applied to the species Humulus japonicus. If Merrill was correct, then the combination Humulus scandens would have priority. The material described by Loureiro, however, was not preserved, and his description does not coincide with that of H. japonicus. Humulus scandens is not included in synonymy in this treatment.

I. A. Grudzinskaya (1988) segregated Humulus japonicus as a new monotypic genus, Humulopsis, with the single species Humulopsis scandens (Loureiro) Grudzinskaya.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Cannabaceae > Humulus
Sibling taxa
H. lupulus
Name authority Siebold & Zuccarini: Abh. Math.-Phys. Cl. Königl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss 4(3): 213. (1846)
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