Parthenocissus quinquefolia – Virginia Creeper

A Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, has ripened its fruit in early spring. The combination of red stalks and dark purple fruit is an indication that the fruits are adapted for dispersal by birds. I can assume bird dispersal because birds can see red but most mammals cannot. Thus, bird-dispersed fruits tend to have red colors somewhere in the infructescence. Often, the fruits themselves are red but in other cases the leaves, bracts, stalks, and/or calyx may be red. In some bird-dispersed plants, the seeds themselves may be red and in a few instances, such as Jamaican caper (Capparis cynophallophora), the fruits split open to reveal a red inner lining.

Virginia creeper is a very hardy plant that is tolerant of a wide variety of conditions. This particular plant was found growing in an alley on a south-facing garage wall near West Palm Beach's city center.

Image and text © 2013 Rufino Osorio

Antigonon leptopus – Coral Vine

Warning: Antigonon leptopus is listed as a Category 2 invasive pest plant by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council. It is included here only as an aid to identification and not to promote its cultivation in any way whatsoever.

Coral vine, Antigonon leptopus, is a vigorous, long-lived, evergreen, tendril-climbing vine native to Mexico and possibly also to western Guatemala. It grows from large, tuberous roots and is extremely difficult to eradicate since any piece of the tubers left in the ground can produce a new plant. It is capable of tolerating extreme adversity, such as prolonged drought, once it is established since it will die back to the ground and sprout new stems once conditions have ameliorated. The heart-shaped leaves are deeply veined and the plant bears pretty pink, or rarely white, flowers during the warmer months of the year, or nearly year around in warm climates.

Coral vine grows aggressively and can produce a smothering blanket over trees as high as 40 feet. It is usually found in disturbed sites but is occasionally found along the edges of forests, where it tolerates a wide range in the level of light and soil moisture. The image shows a plant that is established behind the nature center building at Okeeheelee County Park in Palm Beach County, Florida. Nearly all of the foliage in the image belongs to a non-native Dioscorea species (wild yam), probably Dioscorea alata, which is another non-native vine that is listed as invasive in Florida. Also visible in the image is the foliage of the native shrub, myrsine (Myrsine cubana), and the native vine, wild grape (Vitis rotundifolia).

Image and text © 2013 Rufino Osorio

Passiflora lutea – Yellow Passion Vine

Yellow passion vine is a perennial vine that climbs by means of tendrils and has stems that can reach 3–5 meters (10–16 feet) in length. It favors shady, moist woodlands and forests but is remarkably adaptable so long as it is not subjected to long spells of hot and dry conditions. The leaves can vary from solid, dark green to pale green, often with beautiful, silvery variegations on the upper surface, as seen in the image above of a plant obtained from Meadow Beauty Nursery. The tiny flowers are only about 1.5 centimeters (half an inch) in diameter and are nondescript from a distance; however, they reward close examination due to their intricate and delicate structure.

As with other native passion vines, yellow passion vine may be profitably grown in butterfly gardens, where its leaves are used as a caterpillar food plant by gulf fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae), julias (Dryas julia), and zebra longwings (Heliconius charitonius). This interesting native vine also has a remarkable association with a highly specialized bee, the passiflora bee, Anthemurgus passiflorae. It is a small black bee whose females collect, as the sole food source for their larvae, only the pollen of yellow passion vines (Neff 2003).

I once attended a lecture by a butterfly gardener who stated that "we should grow pretty passion vines since they are all equal as far as the butterflies are concerned." By this, she meant that we should grow large-flowered passion vines and ignore the small-flowered native passion vines. But she was wrong on two counts. First, some non-native passion vines are lethal to the caterpillars that normally feed on native passion vines, so it would make a difference to the butterflies whether or not a passion vine is native. And it would make a big difference to specialist insects such as the passiflora bee, whose progeny would starve without the native yellow passion vine.

Yellow passion vine is botanically interesting as the most cold-hardy and northern growing of any passion vine native to the Western Hemisphere. It occurs as a native plant only in the United States, where it has a considerable range that includes much of the eastern half of our country.

USDA Distribution Map

References:

• Neff, J.L. 2003. The passionflower bee: Anthemurgus passiflorae. Passiflora 13(1): 7–9. Internet

 

© 2010 Rufino Osorio (exclusive of the USDA map).

Funastrum clausum

Funastrum clausum is a vigorous vine with long stems capable of climbing to great lengths. It is commonly known as white twine-vine or white milkweed-vine and is usually associated with wet areas such as ditches, pond margins, and the edges of mangroves and swamps. The plant is tolerant of disturbance and is occasionally found in overgrown thickets in old empty lots and along railroad tracks. It has a variety of horticultural uses and can be grown in a moist, sunny area wherever a vigorous, freely flowering vine is desired. It is also highly recommended for insect and butterfly gardens since the sweetly fragrant flowers attract a wide variety of insects and the foliage is eaten by the caterpillars of monarch, queen, and soldier butterflies.

Funastrum clausum is native to Florida and Texas in the United States. Outside of the United States, it occurs throughout a very wide area from Mexico to Argentina, as well as in the Caribbean.

Until recently, this plant was known as Sarcostemma clausum and it is still found under that name in many publications and web sites.

© 2010 Rufino Osorio.