High-climbing vine, the pith interrupted by nodal diaphragms 2-5 mm thick; twigs terete; lvs rotund in outline, 5-15 cm, lobeless or slightly 3- lobed (the lobes ±divergent), coarsely serrate (the teeth mostly wider than high, with one or both sides convex), pubescence beneath when young and persistently so in the vein-axils; infls long and slender, loosely fld, 10-15 cm; fr black, not glaucous, 5-10 mm; raphe carried over the end of the seed as a distinct raised ridge; 2n=38. Woods and thickets; N.J. to s. Wis. and Neb., s. to Fla. and Tex. (V. cordifolia)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.