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Florida keys hempvine

Stems

6-angled, gray-tomentulose or tomentose;

internodes 5–20 cm.

Leaf

blades ovate to deltate, 5–10 × 3–8 cm, bases cordate, margins subentire to undulate-dentate, apices acute to acuminate, faces densely pilose to tomentose (abaxial paler than adaxial).

Petioles

25–55 mm, densely pilose to tomentose.

Corollas

white, 3.5–5 mm, lobes linear.

Phyllaries

substramineous, elliptic to narrowly ovate, 6–8 mm, apices acute to slightly rounded.

Heads

7–10 mm.

Cypselae

brown, 3–4 mm, glabrous or pubescent, sparsely gland-dotted;

pappi of ca. 60 white, barbellate bristles 4–5 mm.

Arrays

of heads compound-corymbiform (terminal and lateral), 6 × 7+ cm.

2n

= 38.

Mikania cordifolia

Phenology Flowering Sep–Dec.
Habitat Wet areas, woodlands, calcareous soils
Elevation 0–100 m (0–300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
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Discussion

Mikania cordifolia grows in all wet-tropical and subtropical America from northern Argentina to the lower Gulf Coastal Plain of the United States. It has the largest natural distribution of any species in the genus. In the tropics, M. cordifolia tends to be weedy, frequently occupying disturbed sites, usually in the lowlands. It is not weedy in the United States. In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, M. cordifolia occurs in relatively open seeps and stream sides in beech (Fagus grandiflora Ehrhart) woods. It was collected in 1875 from the Navy Ballast Yard in Kargins Point, New Jersey (W. C. Holmes 1981); no further records for New Jersey are known.

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

Source FNA vol. 21, p. 546.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Eupatorieae > Mikania
Sibling taxa
M. batatifolia, M. scandens
Synonyms Cacalia cordifolia
Name authority (Linnaeus f.) Willdenow: Sp. Pl. 3: 1746. (1803)
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