I have asked so many people and looked on the internet and in books to try to identify this climbing vine that grows on our property. We live on a North facing slope covered by a climax Appalachian oak and hickory forest. The slope runs down to the Alcovy River where the oaks and hickories are replaced by American Beech, American Hornbean, River Birch, Swamp Chestnut Oaks, Red Maple, Sweetgum and Yellow Popular. Growing up some of these trees in this lower area is a climbing vine that I have not been able to identify. I am familiar with scuppernong (wild grape), Honeysuckle, Wild Jasmine, Poison Ivy, and Smilax, which all grow in the same area, so I know this is not these. The vine has woody stems which cling closely to the bark of the host trees. The leaves are deciduous so they fall off in the fall and grow new stems and leaves in the spring. The leaves are smooth and soft, with some substance to them. There are no hairs on the leaves nor spines or thorns on the stems. They are smooth. In the photo, one can see pollen clumped on the leaves. We had a slight rain that failed to wash the pollen off the leaves. (We have been having record pollen counts lately) So the leaves are solid green. Thank you so much in advance. -Charlotte
With paired leaves maybe it's a hydrangea family plant. There's at least one climbing species (Decumaria?) native to North America. Later: Yes, the North American native is Decumaria and it also looks like your plant may be an example. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=decumaria&oe=ISO-8859-1&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
This is excellent! Thank you Ron and tipularia for taking the time out of your busy day to respond to my post here. Curiosity being what it is, this was another plant that I have had some difficulty in identifying on my walks down our little trail in the woods along the Alcovy River. So this is Decumaria barbara! Otherwise know as Climbing Hydrangea or Wood Vamp. Thanks so much for the links. Several of the photos look very much like the ones I had taken of the specimen we have here and yet some do not and it's apparent that this vine looks differently, as in the spacing between leaf sets, depending on the amount of sunlight the vine is able to get. In our woods, it is quite dark shade so the leaf sets are widely separated and the vines grow high up into the canopy. Probably why I have never seen the blooms these vines are probably putting out as they are way up there, where the sunlight is. On the Sparkleberrysprings.com website the author, Wayne, has a few photos of Wood Vamp that look much like the vines I see here. Wayne, too, comments on not having, so far, seen the blooms on these vines. It seems the vines he photographed are in an environment much like we have here and this is why the our photos of the vines look so much alike. Wayne goes on to state that Wood Vamp was once considered in the Saxifrage family but has been moved into the Hydrangea family. Just fascinating. Anyway, thanks so much, again. Hope you have a great spring!
