Menispermum canadense

Native

Moist. Woods, thickets.

June to July

White

Climbing: up to 16′ long

This is a climbing, perennial, woody vine rising from a rhizome.

Young vines are green and hairy. When they mature they become hairless and woody. It climbs by twining around the stems of adjacent plants. They extend to about 16′ and climb 6′ to 10′. There are no tendrils.

The leaves are alternate, bluish-green, up to 9″ long and 9½″ wide, untoothed and round to egg-shaped or, rarely, kidney-shaped. Young leaves are hairy, becoming mostly hairless as they mature. The base of the leaf is heart-shaped, squared, or rounded. There are 3 to 7 shallow lobes or angles. They are on leaf stalks up to 8″ long. The leaf stalk attaches to the blade a little less than ½″ inside the margin.

Male and female flowers are found on separate plants. The inflorescence is a dense, branched cluster borne in few leaf axils of non-woody vines. They are up to 7″ long and hang downward from the stem on long stalks.

The flowers are a little over ⅛″ wide. They have 5 to 8 sepals and 4 to 12 (usually 6 to 9) white petals.

The fruit is a black or bluish-black, ¼″ to ½″ thick berry with a single crescent-shaped seed. The berry often has a whitish, waxy bloom at maturity. All parts of this plant, especially the friuts, are poisonous. They contain the alkaloid dauricine. Ingestion of the seeds is often fatal.

Silverleaf grape (Vitis aestivalis var. bicolor) leaves are whitish on the underside and have sharply-toothed edges. Tendrils form opposite most leaves. The leaves are attached at the margin. The fruits are edible though sour, and contain 2 to 4, pear-shaped seeds.

Wild grape (Vitis riparia) has yellowish-green leaves with sharply-toothed edges. Tendrils form opposite most leaves. The leaves are attached at the margin. The fruits are edible though sour, and contain 2 to 6, pear-shaped seeds.

Bur cucumber (Sicyos angulatus) leaf stalks attach to the blades at the margin.

Wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata) has more deeply cut leaves. The fruit is a green, inflated, egg-shaped capsule. The leaf stalk attaches to the blade at the margin.