Field Key to VCR Plant Species
Subsection Vl. Vines and Brambles
- 1a. Broad-leafed vines with opposite leaves.
- 2a. Vines with opposite compound leaves; aerial rootlets in double rows along
twigs; 7-11 toothed egg-shaped leaflets; smooth green buds; orange-red tunnel-
shaped flowers.....
Trumpet Creeper, Campsis radicans
(
CMPRDC).
- 2b. Vines with opposite simple leaves.
- 3a. Leaves oblong, the upper pairs joined together; woody stem; 2.5-5 cm. long
scarlet (rarely yellow) funnel-shaped flowers with a narrow tube.....
Trumpet or Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens
(LNCSMP).
- 3b. Leaves triangular or heart-shaped, slightly toothed; no tendrils; white
or pink flower heads in branching clusters.....Climbing Hempweed, Mikania scandens
(MKNSCN).
- 1b. Broad-leafed vines and brambles with alternate leaves.
- 4a. Vines or arching brambles with alternate compound leaves.
- 5a. Arching brambles that are prickly or thorny; both leaves and stems prickly;
3 leaflets coarsely toothed; twigs green; stems grow in vase-like clumps,
arching back to the ground; fruits are many-seeded black berries.....Blackberry, Rubus argutus
(RBSARG).
- 5b. Vines not thorny.
- 6a. Five leaflets, fan-compounded, coarsely toothed; tendrils ending in
disks.....Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia
(PRTQNQ).
- 6b. Three leaflets, none to only a few coarse teeth.
- 7a. Leaves shiny. often longer than 5 cm., stem somewhat woody
sometimes bushy and erect. often high climbing; large stems
shaggy, with aerial rootlets; green flowers and gray or whitish
fruit in small branching clusters in axil.....Poison Ivy, Rhus radicans
(RHSRDC).
- 7b. Leaves without tendrils, 2.5-5 cm. long; small stems non-
woody and low climbing or trailing.
- 8a. Stems hairy; greenish-purple or pink flowers,
about 1.2 cm. long, in umbels or headlike clusters
at the end of long stalk.
- 9a. Leaves egg- or pear-shaped. often with 3 blunt lobes.....Trailing Wild Bean, Strophostyles helvola
(STRHLV).
- 9a. Leaves oblong or narrowly egg-shaped; rarely lobed.
.....Pink Wild Bean, Strophostyles umbellata
(STRUMB).
- 8b. Stems smooth; root tough, ebngate; legume sessile
flattened, many-seeded, about 7-14 cm_ long.....Climbing Butterfly Pea, Centrosema virginianum
(CNTVPG).
- 4b. Vines or arching brambles with alternate simple leaves.
- 10a. Tendrils present.
- 11a. Prickly or green-stemmed.
- 12a. Leaves leathery; prickles sout.
- 13a. Leaves variable, triangular to fiddle-shaped, with bases
heart-shaped, bristly edges. and prominent veins.....Bullbrler Greenbrier, Smilax bona-nox
(SMLBNN).
- 13b. Leaves broadly rounded or heart-shaped, no fringe on
edges, thinner leaves than 5. bona-nox, less prominent
veins.....Catbrier or Common Greenbrier, Smilax rotundifolia
(SMLRTN).
- 12b. Leaves not leathery, white beneath, narrow to broad-shaped;
prickles weak.....Sawbrier or Glaucous Greenbrier, Smilax glauca
(SMLGLC).
- 11b. Without prickles, brown-stemmed; leaves coarsely toothed.
- 14a. Underside of leaves hairy, covered with matted wool or
whitened beneath; no tendril or flower luster opposite
every third leaf.....Summer Grape, Vitis aestivalis
(VTSAST).
- 14b. Leaves hairless; tendrils not forked; no woody pith
partitions; pith brown; bark usually smooth and dark
with small dots.....Muscadine Grape, Vitis rotundifolia
(VTSRTN).
- 10b. Tendrils lacking.
- 15a. Elliptical leaves have distinctively straight parallel side-veins;
fine teeth may be present or lacking; single bundle scar; buds
sharp, hug twigs.....Supplejack, Berchemia scandens
(BRCSCN).
- 15b. Leaves arrow-shaped, elongate; stem and leaves smooth to lightly
and finely hairy; terminal end of vine may look like a climbing
tendril; flowers branch off the axil, pink with white stripes to
entirely white.....Hedge Bindweed, Calystegia sepium
(CLYSPM).
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