High-climbing vine, the pith interrupted by nodal diaphragms; twigs angular; tendrils or infls lacking opposite each 3rd lf; lvs subrotund to broadly ovate, 1-2 dm, shallowly 3-lobed or lobeless, irregularly serrate, when young densely covered beneath and partly above with cobwebby tomentum, as also the petioles and branches, the tomentum largely disappearing above but persistent and floccose beneath; twigs and petioles, after disappearance of the tomentum, densely short-hairy; infls 1-2 dm, slender; fr nearly black, 4-6 mm; 2n=38. Moist alluvial soil. Var. cinerea, with the tomentum of the lvs ashy-gray, occurs from c. Ind. to s. Wis. and e. Kans., s. to Fla. and Tex., and has been reported from se. Va. Var. floridana Munson, with rufescent tomentum, occurs from se. Va. to Fla. (V. simpsonii)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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