Virginia creeper

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Virginia creeper buds

Virginia creeper

Virginia creeper fruit

Virginia creeper tendril

Virginia creeper leaves

Virginia creeper flowers

Virgina creeper

Morphology

Trunk

Stems climbing or clambering; tendrils 3-12-branched, terminal adhesive disks present; bark light brown to dark brown, adherent, fissures deep, ridges broad, rounded; wood light brown, soft.

Twigs

Orangish brown to brown, flexible, minutely pubescent, older twigs sometimes bearing adventitious roots; leaf scars oval; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .08 to .12 inch, apex acute, scales glabrate.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, palmately compound; petiole 4 to 8 inches, glabrescent; leaflets (4-)5(-7), elliptic to obovate, 2.4 to 5.1 inches long, .8 to 2.4 inches wide, base wedge-shaped, margins coarsely serrate, apex acuminate, lower surface light green, glabrous or minutely pubescent along veins, upper surface dull dark green, glabrous.

Flowers

Inflorescences opposite leaves on new growth, panicles, with distinct central axis, 25-100-flowered, spreading, 2.4 to 4.8 inches; peduncle .4 to 2.4 inches, usually glabrous, sometimes minutely pubescent; pedicels .08 to .12 inch, usually glabrous, sometimes minutely pubescent. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals 5, connate, lobes green, indistinct; calyx saucer-shaped; petals 5, distinct, yellowish green or reddish green, oblong, .12 to .14 inch; stamens 5, to .1 inch; pistil 1, ovary superior, 2-locular; style 1; stigma 1, unlobed.

Fruit

August-September; berries, dark blue or black, nearly spherical, .2 to .28 inch long, .24 to .3 inch wide, smooth, glaucous, glabrous, peduncle and pedicels turning red; seeds 2-4, dark brown, ovoid, .16 to .2 inch long, minutely granular.

Ecology

Habitat

Dry to mesic forests and woodlands, thickets, ravines, fencerows, bluffs, rocky hillsides.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas

Practical Information

Toxicity

Kingsbury reported the fruits to be poisonous.

Uses

Native Americans used infusions, decoctions, or poultices made from the twigs or bark medicinally.

Additional Notes