0377 



MOONSEED 



Family: MENISPERMACEAE. 



Reproductive system: DlOECY, DODECANDRY. 



The common moonseed, Menispermum canadense, Linn., is a climbing shrub. Its 

 flexible stems wind from right to left around the first support that they find. The leaves 

 are alternate, umbilicate, heart-shaped with three lobes, dark green, and are on long, 

 reddish petioles. The flowers, small and greenish, are in pedunculate clusters. The male 

 ones have a calyx in two sections, four or six outer petals and eight inner ones; there are 

 sixteen stamens. The female flowers likewise have a calyx in two sections, eight sterile 

 stamens, two or three ovaries, and the same number of styles and stigmas. The fruit is 

 made up of two or three berries that have a single seed. 



FLOWERS: in June and July. 



RANGE: Canada, Virginia. 



NOMENCLATURE. Menispermum is made up of two Greek words that mean moon 

 and seed, because the seed is crescent-shaped. German, der kanadische mondsame. 

 Dutch, kanadasch gulpzaad. English, the Canadian moonseed. 



USES. This shrub has been used successfully for a long time to cover arbors and 

 to form trellises in our gardens, where it grows profusely on its own. 



CULTIVATION. It's very easily propagated from seeds and cuttings. 



The Menispermum genus embraces a large number of species, but almost all of 

 them live in warm regions of the Old and New Worlds. One of them produces the Indian 

 berry [Translator's note: possibly cocculus indicus, the berry of the vine Anamirta 

 cocculus] sometimes used for killing fish, despite police regulations that prohibit this 

 kind of fishing under penalty of corporal punishment. 



