Flora of North America species comparison

perennial, climbing, often zigzag distally, branched, terete to 4-angled, stout, to 5+ m × 5 mm, woody, glabrous or infrequently with stellate trichomes;

prickles often absent distally, tips black, flattened, broad- based, stout, 4–9 mm, rigid.

annual, erect to leaning, with bladeless bracts proximally, leaves distally, 0.3–0.8 m, herbaceous;

prickles absent.

evergreen, ± evenly dispersed;

petiole 0.7–1.5 cm;

blade pale green, often with white blotches, drying to uniform tan, thickish, broadly ovate to lanceolate-ovate or hastate to pandurate, with 3(–5) ± prominent veins, 3–10 × 2.5–9 cm, not glaucous, glabrous or minutely pubescent abaxially, base cordate to truncate, frequently lobed;

margins entire to remotely spinose-ciliate, thickened by ribbed, cartilaginous band, often revolute and appearing as prominent vein parallel to margins, apex rounded to short-apiculate.

mostly distal (upper 1/2–2/3 of plant);

petiole thin, shorter than blade;

tendrils few and short or absent;

blade thin, broadly elliptic-ovate to subrotund, 9–12 × 5–9 cm, pubescent and not glaucous abaxially, base cordate to truncate, margins entire, convex, apex round to acuminate.

few to numerous, axillary to leaves, 10–15+-flowered, moderately dense;

peduncle 1.5–6+ cm.

1–3, proximalmost axillary to bracts below leaves, to 25-flowered, hemispherical to globose.

perianth pale green;

tepals 3–4.5 mm;

anthers shorter than to ± equaling filaments;

ovule 1 per locule;

pedicel 0.8–1.2 cm.

perianth green;

tepals 3.5–4 mm;

anthers ± equaling filaments;

ovules (1–)2 per locule;

pedicel 0.5–1.3 cm.

black, ovoid to spherical, 6–8 mm, shiny to dull, sometimes glaucous.

purplish black, globose, 9–11 mm, not glaucous.

;

rhizomes tuberous, woody, or stoloniferous.

= 32.

= 52.