VIRGINIA CREEPER
File Size: 207 KB
 
Parthenocissus quinquefolia   (L. ) Planch.
Riley County, Kansas
Height: Vine, to 80-100 feet
Family: Vitaceae - Grape Family
Flowering Period:   May, June, July
Trunks: Stems climbing or clambering; tendrils 3-12-branched, terminal adhesive disks present; bark light brown to dark brown, adherent, fissures deep, ridges broad, rounded; wood light brown, soft.
Twigs: Orangish brown to brown, flexible, minutely pubescent, older twigs sometimes bearing adventitious roots; leaf scars oval; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .08 to .12 inch, apex acute, scales glabrate.
Leaves: Deciduous, alternate, palmately compound; petiole 4 to 8 inches, glabrescent; leaflets (4-)5(-7), elliptic to obovate, 2.4 to 5.1 inches long, .8 to 2.4 inches wide, base wedge-shaped, margins coarsely serrate, apex acuminate, lower surface light green, glabrous or minutely pubescent along veins, upper surface dull dark green, glabrous.
Flowers: Inflorescences opposite leaves on new growth, panicles, with distinct central axis, 25-100-flowered, spreading, 2.4 to 4.8 inches; peduncle .4 to 2.4 inches, usually glabrous, sometimes minutely pubescent; pedicels .08 to .12 inch, usually glabrous, sometimes minutely pubescent. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals 5, connate, lobes green, indistinct; calyx saucer-shaped; petals 5, distinct, yellowish green or reddish green, oblong, .12 to .14 inch; stamens 5, to .1 inch; pistil 1, ovary superior, 2-locular; style 1; stigma 1, unlobed.
Fruit: August-September; berries, dark blue or black, nearly spherical, .2 to .28 inch long, .24 to .3 inch wide, smooth, glaucous, glabrous, peduncle and pedicels turning red; seeds 2-4, dark brown, ovoid, .16 to .2 inch long, minutely granular.
Habitat: Dry to mesic forests and woodlands, thickets, ravines, fencerows, bluffs, rocky hillsides.
Distribution: Throughout Kansas
Origin: Native
Toxicity: Kingsbury reported the fruits to be poisonous.
Uses: Native Americans used infusions, decoctions, or poultices made from the twigs or bark medicinally.
Comments: Virginia creeper often climbs high into the canopy of trees where their crimson leaves are conspicuous in the fall.

Virginia creeper leaves
81 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Virginia creeper flowers
91 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Virginia creeper buds
120 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Virginia creeper fruit
109 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Virginia creeper tendril
167 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Virgina creeper
122 KB
Riley County, Kansas