Sicyos laciniatus

Kearney and Peebles 1969, McDougal 1973

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Vine General: Annual climbing vines, stems slender, with branching tendrils. Leaves: Alternate, angular to deeply cleft with rounded lobes, the spaces between the lobes usually closed. Flowers: White to pale yellow, corollas rotate with 5 lobes, calyx with 5 more or less united sepals, stamens 2-5, filaments united into a column, pistillate flowers clustered at the end of a peduncle in the same axil as the longer staminate peduncle and forming a capitate cluster. Fruits: Small spiny, ovoid fruits 6-7 mm long, not fleshy, borne in a capitate cluster, spines slender, minutely barbed, deciduous. Ecology: Found along streams, from 4,000-5,500 ft (1219-1676 m); flowering August-September. Distribution: Arizona, New Mexico. Notes: Although S. laciniatus var. subinteger is a synonym for this species, S. ampelophyllus is considered a separate species from S. laciniatus. Look to the fruits with small, deciduous spines to help identify the genus, and the lobes of the leaves to help identify the species; S. ampelophyllus has lobes that are shallow, not cleft to the middle, with broadly triangular lobes; S. laciniatus has leaves cleft to the middle or deeper, the lobes oblong. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Unknown Synonyms: Sicyos laciniatus var. subinteger Editor: LCrumbacher 2011

Plant: Monoecious annual vine with slender stems Leaves: leaves alternate, angulate to deeply cleft Flowers: staminate and pistillate flowers mostly from same axils Fruit: spiny ovoid bur <1 cm.