1.
Agdestis clematidea
Sessé & Moçiño ex de Candolle, Syst. Nat. 1: 543. 1817.
Rockroot
Stems
climbing, to 25 m, pubescent to glabrate.
Leaves:
petiole 2-5 cm; blade ovate to reniform, to 9 × 5.5 cm, base cordate, apex obtuse to rounded, often mucronate.
Panicles
4-15 cm; peduncle 2-10 cm; pedicel 1-10 mm.
Flowers:
sepals white to greenish white, reticulate-veined, oblong to ovate or obovate, 4-6.5 mm.
Cypselas
2.5 mm (perhaps not maturing in se U.S.), crowned by winglike sepals to 6 × 3 mm.
Flowering summer-fall. Hammocks, orchards, waste places, ravines; 0-30 m; Fla., Tex.; Mexico; Central America; native to subtropical and tropical America.
Of this species, N. L. Britton (1904) wrote, "The flowers and inflorescence are wonderfully Clematis-like, greatly resembling those of
Clematis Vitalba
of Europe and...those of our own
Clematis Virginiana
. But the most striking thing about the plant is its horrid odor, the flowers being, if anything, more fetid than those of the carrion-flower or skunk-cabbage...."
The root of
Agdestis clematidea
allegedly can weigh as much as 68 kg and resemble a large boulder.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Britton, N. L. 1904.
Agdestis clematidea
Moçiño & Sessé. Torreya 4: 24.
