Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Scandent perennial herbs.

Stems: Stems succulent, 1–4 m long, glabrous or glandular pilose.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, decussate. Blades ovate to ovate–lanceolate, 2.5–4.3 cm long, 1.4–4.5 cm wide. Apex acute to long-acuminate. Base truncate to subcordate. Upper surfaces sparsely bristly; lower surfaces glabrous to glandular bristly. Margins ciliolate–serrulate. 3–7-veined. Petioles 0.6–3.2 cm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers few in terminal cymes, each one subtended by a pair of deciduous, sessile bracteoles, pedicels 7–15(–19) mm long in fruit. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Hypanthium 7–10 mm long in flower, terete (cylindrical); fruiting hypanthium oblong–ellipsoid, 15–20 mm long, 8–9 mm wide. Calyx lobes 4, deltate, persistent, lobes 1–3.5 mm long in fruit, 2–3.5 mm wide at base, with 1–2 subapical glandular hairs. Corolla of 4 petals, early deciduous, obliquely apiculate, 2–3 cm long, 1.1–1.6 cm wide. Stamens 8, markedly dimorphic; anthers with a ventrally inclined apical pore, connective prolon prolonged dorsally near the filament insertion into a minute lobule and prolonged ventrally at base of anthers into an upturned appendage at junction with filament; anthers of larger Stamens ca. 6 mm long, connective prolonged 0.25–0.5 mm or 5–7 mm below and modified basally into ventral, bifid spurs ca. 1.5 mm long or linear, apically acute or lobed spurs 3–5 mm long, respectively; anthers of smaller Stamens ca. 5 mm long, connective not proLonged ventrally but modified at the filament insertion into a deeply notched spur ca. 2 mm long. Ovary inferior, distinct, 4-celled, glandular puberulent at apex.

Fruit: Capsules enclosed by the accrescent hypanthium at maturity. Seeds ca. 1 mm long; cochleate; prominently ribbed and with a terminal hilum.

Ploidy: 2n = 60

Habitat: Mesic to wet areas in open to partially shaded disturbed areas including roadsides; trailsides and mixed native/alien forests.

Elevation Range: 10–360 m.