Scandent shrubs or woody vines; branches terete, puberulous, strigose or glabrescent. Leaves elliptic-oblong or oblong-ovate to broadly ovate or oval, acute or obtuse apically, rounded or cuneate basally, 3.5-8.5 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide (leaves of the flowering branches much smaller, usually oval or suborbicular), pergamaceous or chartaceous with veins densely reticulate and prominulous on both sides, somewhat shining, puberulent or glabrous above, puberulent, strigose or glabrescent beneath, usually more densely so along the veins; petioles strigose or puberulous, 2-7 mm long. Racemes loose or rather dense, terminal or axillary, sometimes branched, 1.5-8 cm long, 1.8-2.5 cm wide; peduncles 2 cm or less, the axis to 6 cm long, densely strigose or puberulous; bracts lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, pubescent, sometimes persistent, 1.5-3 mm long. Flowers pink or pur-ple, the pedicels 3-7 mm long, pubescent; outer sepals oval, rounded, puberulent except near the ciliate margin, the largest usually concave, 3-4 mm long, the smaller 2 ca 2 mm long; wings suborbicular to oval or ovate, broadly rounded apically, usually emarginate, short-clawed basally, usually unequal, the margin sometimes ciliate, the outside glabrous (including the claw), 7-10 mm long, 6-8 mm wide; upper petals subspatulate, truncate apically, usually sparsely pub-erulent basally inside, rarely ciliate on the margin, 5-7 mm long; keel 7.5-10 mm long, as folded together 1.9-2.8 mm wide, the middle portion of the apex form-ing a wide, many-plicate, irregularly toothed or fimbriate crest, 1-1.8 mm long, the keel frequently ciliate on the margin, sometimes the basal half sparsely puberulous on the outside or glabrous, usually puberulous inside on the saccate portion; basal half of staminal sheath pubescent, the free part of the filaments 2.5-3.2 mm long; ovary compressed-ellipsoidal, glabrous, 0.8-1 mm long, 0.6-0.8 mm wide, slightly margined on one side, the appendage on the other side ovate, acute, densely puberulent, extending beyond the ovary, 7-9 mm long, the style 9-11 mm long, the stigma 2-lobed, approximate. Samara (not seen at maturity) greenish or straw-colored, puberulous, 4-6 cm long, fruiting locule plump, elevated-reticulate, 5-8 mm long, margined on upper side, the margin 1-2.5 mm wide, prolonged beyond the fruiting locule and connate with the wing, usually with a triangular free tooth apically; wing obovate, narrower basally, 3.2-5 cm long. 3-4 mm wvide (excluding the connate upper ving-margin of fruiting locule), 11-17 mm near middle (after Blake, N. Amer. Fl. 25: 373, 1924).
Home