Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order:	Rhamnales
Family:	Vitaceae
Genus:	Parthenocissus
Species:	P. quinquefolia
Binomial name
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.
Natural range of Parthenocissus quinquefolia from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: Virginia creeper

Description

"High climbing vine with white pith and many tendrils with adhesive disks. Leaves palmately compound, petiolate; leaflets 3-7, usually 5, ovate, elliptic, or obovate, to 15 cm long and 8 cm wide, glabrous, usually pale beneath, occasionally pubescent, acuminate, coarsely serrate, usually above the middle of the blade, base cuneate or oblique, petiolulate. Inflorescence a panicle of cymes. Calyx flat, usually without lobes; petals 5, separate, yellowish green, 2-3 mm long; disk small, adnate to ovary; stamens 5, filaments short; style ca. 0.5 mm long. Drupes black or dark blue, globose, 5-9 mm in diam.; seeds 1-3, lustrous brown, planoconvex, obovoid, 3.5-4 mm long." - Radford et al 1964

Ecology

Pollination

The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of Parthenocissus quinquefolia at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015):

Apidae: Apis mellifera

Colletidae: Colletes nudus

Halictidae: Augochloropsis anonyma, A. metallica

Megachilidae: Coelioxys sayi, Megachile mendica

Pompilidae: Episyron conterminus posterus, Tachypompilus f. ferrugineus

Vespidae: Mischocyttarus cubensis, Parancistrocerus fulvipes rufovestris, P. perennis anacardivora, Polistes bellicosus, Stenodynerus beameri, Vespula squamosa

References and notes

Deyrup, M.A. and N.D. 2015. Database of observations of Hymenoptera visitations to flowers of plants on Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA.

Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 694. Print.