Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

VIRGINIA CREEPER

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Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L. ) Planch.

Riley County, Kansas

Height: Vine, to 80-100 feet

Family: Vitaceae - Grape Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Trunks:

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.

Habitat:

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

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas

Origin:

Native

Toxicity:

Kingsbury reported the fruits to be poisonous.

Uses:

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

Comments:

Virginia creeper often climbs high into the canopy of trees where their crimson leaves are conspicuous in the fall.