MOONSEED FAMILY 



MENISPERMACEAE 



MOONSEED 



Menispermum canadense L. 



This Moonseed is a woody plant that climbs by twining 

 around any support it can find. It grows along streams and forest 

 borders or in rather open woods throughout the eastern half of 



the United States and south- 

 ern Canada, abundant in 

 some localities and rare in 

 others. 



The leaves are quite vari- 

 able but usually peltate and 

 3-7-lobed. They are slender 

 petioled and broadly ovate, 

 being 4-8 inches wide. 



The flowers are dioecious, 

 and bloom in June and July. 

 Both forms are borne in loose 

 clusters in the axils of leaves 

 and are greenish white or 

 yellowish white and quite 

 small. Each flower has 4-8 

 sepals and 6-8 short petals. 

 The staminate form has i 2-24 

 stamens, and the pistillate 

 2-4 pistils and usually a tew 

 sterile filaments. 



The fruits ripen in Sep- 

 tember as purplish blue or 

 black drupes which are cov- 

 ered with a waxy bloom and resemble small grapes, but they are 

 not edible. The stone of the fruit becomes curved in maturity so 

 that it is more or less half-moon shaped and the cause of the 

 plant's common name. 



The Scarlet Moonseed, Cocculus carolinus (L.) DC, is a low 

 straggling climber found only in the southern part of the state. 

 Several minutely hairy stems rise 4-8 feet from the root crown, 

 bearing alternate- heart-shaped leaves, downy beneath. The small 

 greenish flowers are in panicles and give way to brilliant coral red 

 drupes supposedly poisonous. 



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