Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Southern Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Virginia Creeper
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.

JPG -- Species Photo GIF -- Distribution Map

Family: Grape (Vitaceae)
Flowering: May-August
Field Marks: This is the only vine with palmately compound leaves with five leaflets.
Habitat: Moist to dry soils in woods, on bluffs, hammocks, steep ravines, bottomlands.
Habit: Climbing or trailing woody vine.
Stems: Twining, smooth or sometimes hairy, with suction cups at the end of tendrils.
Leaves: Alternate, palmately compound, with 5 leaflets; each leaflet oval to elliptic to broadly lanceolate, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, coarsely toothed, smooth or sometimes hairy on the lower surface, up to 6 inches long.
Flowers: Several in compound cymes, up to 1/4 inch across.
Sepals: 5, green, united below.
Petals: 5, yellow-green, free from each other, up to 1/8 inch long.
Stamens: 5.
Pistils: Ovary superior.
Fruits: Berries spherical, blue, up to 1/4 inch in diameter, with 2-3 seeds; stalk of fruits red.
Notes: This species is sometimes called woodbine. Its foliage turns red in autumn, making it a desirable ornamental. White-tailed deer browse this species, and wild turkey eat the tendrils.

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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 03-Aug-2006 11:39:25 EDT
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