Flora of North America species comparison

perennial, prostrate to clambering, branching, slender, to 1 m, ± woody, densely woolly-pubescent, usually prickly (especially at base).

perennial, climbing, branching, terete, to 7+ m × 9 mm, woody, glabrous, with prickles proximally, prickles usually absent distally;

prickles blackish, unequal, 3–10+ mm, bristly, flexible.

mostly evergreen, ± evenly disposed;

petiole 0.05–0.25 cm, often longer on sterile shoots;

blade gray-green, drying to ashy gray-green, obovate to ovate-lanceolate, with 3 prominent veins, 6–10.5 × 5–8 cm, glabrous adaxially, densely puberulent abaxially, base cordate to deeply notched, margins entire, apex bluntly pointed.

± persistent in southern part of range, deciduous in north;

petiole 1–2 cm;

blade green, drying to light olive-gray, ovate-lanceolate, ovate, or sometimes pandurate, prominently reticulate, thin, 5–13 × 3–10 cm, not glaucous, glabrous (to prickly on major veins abaxially), base rounded to cordate, margins entire apically, minutely serrulate basally, thin, flat, not banded, not lobed, apex pointed.

1–7, axillary to leaves, 5–16-flowered, loose, spherical;

peduncle 0.2–0.8 cm, shorter than to 1.5 as long as petiole of subtending leaf.

many, axillary to leaves, to 25-flowered, open to dense, spherical;

peduncle often drooping, 1.5–6.5 cm.

perianth yellowish;

tepals 3–4 mm;

anthers much shorter than filaments;

ovule 1 per locule;

pedicel thin, 0.1–0.4 cm.

perianth green to bronze;

tepals 4–5 mm;

anthers ± equaling to shorter than filaments;

ovule 1 per locule;

pedicel 0.4–1.2 cm.

red, ovoid, 5–8 mm, with acute beaks, not glaucous.

black, globose, 6–10 mm, not glaucous.

;

rhizomes knotty, short.