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 Leaves Stephen Hale @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: CC BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial) |  Plant Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Fruit Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Annual Similar Species: Sicyos laciniatus
General Desc:
Weak-stemmed vine, climbs on other plants using spiral tendrils that uncoil to support the stems. Coarse green leaves have several, narrow, rounded lobes. Tiny whitish to pale yellow bell-shaped flowers grow in rounded clusters from the stem axils.
Identification notes: Slender climbing vine, branched tendrils; leaf lobes rounded, shallow, not cleft to the middle, leaves to 5 inches long; flowers have 5 whitish to pale yellow rounded petals; fruits to 1/4 inch long in head-like cluster, armed with minutely barbed spines.
Height:
Up to about 3 feet long
Habitat Description: Usually found in shady areas along streams and riparian woods (cottonwood-willow, juniper, oak and pine-oak forests) as well as canyons, rocky slopes, cliff faces and bases.
Plant Communities:
Pinyon Juniper Woodland, Riparian
Elevation: 4000 - 5500 feet
Color:
Whitish to pale yellow
Shape:
Bell-shaped in round clusters
Tubular:
Y
Flowering Period:
Aug - Sep
Description:
Male and female flowers grow on the same plant; both flower stalks arise from the same leaf axil (between the stem and the leaf). The longer male stalk has 3 to 10 tiny 5-petaled flowers while the shorter female stalk has a cluster of 4 to 10 flowers.
Leaf Color:
Green
Leaf Type:
Simple
Leaf Shape:
Round or oval
Leaf Margin:
Lobed
Leaf Attachment:
Alternate
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
Leaves and stems
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Leaf blades are about 5 inches long, 4 inches wide, covered with short stiff hairs and have narrow rounded lobes with short spines. Leaf stalks are as long as the blades or longer. Stems are glandular-sticky but the glands are shed with age.
Fruit Color: Green
Fruit Type: Berry-like
Fruit Notes: Fruit is a "pepo" with an oval shape. It's about 1/4 inch long, covered by a hard rind and grows in a rounded cluster. The pepo is densely covered with small (1/8 inch) straw-colored spines that have backward-pointing barbed hooks at their tips.
Seed Notes: The fruit contains a single smooth seed. The seed has 2 conspicuous scars at its base marking its detachment from the fruit.
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