VITACEAE 197 



PARTHENOCISSUS QUINQUEFOLIA (Linnaeus) 



Planchon 



Virginia Creeper Woodbine 



The Virginia Creeper, fig. 50, is a high-climbing vine with 

 tight bark furrowed on large stems, palmately compound, 

 5-parted leaves and small, dry, grapelike fruit. Terminal 

 branchlets are more or less pubescent, but fruiting and lateral 

 branchlets are usually smooth. Tendrils are branched and have 

 from 3 to 8 offshoots, of which 1 or more may be provided 

 with disks. The leaves vary greatly in shape and size, but 

 are composed normally of 5 ovate, oblong-ovate, or even obovate 

 leaflets, of which the middle or terminal 1 is distinctly the 

 largest and the 2 at the rear are distinctly smallest. The leaflets 

 may be as much as 6 inches long and nearly 4 inches wide. The 

 lateral leaflets of each group are asymmetrical, having one-half 

 of the blade much larger than the other. These leaflets are 

 acute or acuminate at the apex and narrowed at the base, and 

 the margins are coarsely and irregularly serrate. The surface 

 is often smooth above and beneath, or more or less densely 

 pubescent, and the leaves on terminal branchlets are generally 

 more hairy than those on other branchlets. The blade is dull 

 green above and distinctly paler beneath. The leaflets may be 

 nearly sessile or set on stalks up to 14 inch long, and the entire 

 leaf stands on a petiole which may be as much as 8 inches long. 



The flowers, which are borne in panicles and open from late 

 June through July, or sometimes even on into August, are 

 clustered in groups of 10 to 20 at the ends of the branches 

 of the panicle. The fruit, which matures in autumn, is a nearly 

 globose, blue-black, dry berry covered with a whitish bloom. 

 It varies considerably in size but is commonly about ]/^ inch in 

 diameter, and contains from 1 to 4 seeds. 



Distribution. — The Virginia Creeper is a vine which com- 

 monly inhabits woody regions, without particular regard to 

 other habitat characteristics. It ranges from New England 

 to Missouri and south to Florida and Mexico. In Illinois, it 

 grows throughout the state. It is no longer limited to woods 

 but. because its fruit is attractive to birds, it has become a 

 common fence-row straggler. Its berries have been suspected — 

 probably erroneously — of being poisonous when eaten in quantity. 



This is the vine so commonly cultivated as Virginia Creeper. 



