Cupseed

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Cupseed leaves

Cupseed leaves

Cupseed leaves

Cupseed inflorescence

Cupseed fruit

Cupseed

Cupseed habit

Morphology

Trunk

Dioecious; stems climbing or clambering; branches unarmed, without tendrils; bark greenish brown to brown, finely ridged; wood white, soft.

Twigs

Yellowish brown, flexible, finely ridged, glabrous or tomentose; leaf scars ovate; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .04 to .06 inch, apex rounded, scales glabrous.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole attached at base of blade, 2.4 to 6 inches long, glabrous; blade pentagonal to broadly ovate, 2.8 to 8 inches long, 3.2 to 7.2 inches wide, base cordate, margins 3-5-lobed, lobes ovate, margins entire or coarsely dentate, apex acuminate, sinuses shallow to deep, lower surface light yellowish green, sparsely hispid, upper surface yellowish green, glabrous.

Flowers

Inflorescences on new growth, racemes or panicles, (5-)10-80-flowered, lax, 3.2 to 5.6 inches; peduncles .6 to 3.2 inches; pedicels .03 to 1 inch, finely woolly. Flowers unisexual, more or less radially symmetric; sepals 6-9, distinct, lobes white, elliptic, .11 to .15 inch, spreading; petals absent; staminate flowers: stamens 6-12, to .12 inch long; pistillate flowers: staminodes 6-many; pistils 3; style absent; stigma deeply lobed, flattened.

Fruit

September-October; drupes, green to yellowish green or bluish black, ovoid to ellipsoid, .6 to 1 inch long, .4 to .8 inch wide, smooth, glabrous, shiny; stone 1, yellowish brown, cup-shaped, .63 to .75 inch long, .52 to .55 inch wide, rim sharply dentate.

Ecology

Habitat

Floodplain and upland forests, stream banks, shaded ledges, bluffs, and ravines.

Distribution

Southeast corner of Kansas

Additional Notes