FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
This high-climbing vine has very glossy, dark green leaves and aerial roots.
Synonym(s): Hydrangea barbara
Description: Smooth-stemmed, high-climbing woody vine with aerial roots.
Leaves: Leaves are thick and very shiny above with tiny downy hairs below. Leaves appear evergreen but are tardily deciduous. Ovate leaf margins are somewhat variable, from smooth to slightly toothed.
Flowers/Fruit: Small white flowers in rounded clusters; fruits are capsules with vertical ridges.
Habit and Range: Found in most soils of bottomlands and adjacent damp forests. Fairly common in the Coastal Plain, mostly in the Roanoke River floodplain. Very rare outside the Coastal Plain.
