''Parthenocissus inserta'' ( syn. ''Parthenocissus vitacea''), also known as thicket creeper, false Virginia creeper, woodbine, or grape woodbine, is a woody

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themsel ...

native to North America, in southeastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

(west to southern

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

) and a large area of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, from

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

west to

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

and south to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

in the east, and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

in the west. It is present in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, but it may be an

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

that far west.Jepson Manual Treatment
/ref> It is introduced in Europe.

Description

''Parthenocissus inserta'' is a climbing and sprawling woody vine ( liana), reaching lengths of 20 m, using small branched tendrils with twining tips. The leaves are palmately compound, composed of five leaflets, each leaflet reaching 13 cm in length and 7 cm broad. The leaflets have a coarsely toothed margin. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are small and greenish, produced in clusters in late spring, and mature in late summer or early fall into small blue-black berries. These berries contain

oxalate Oxalate (IUPAC: ethanedioate) is an anion with the formula C2O42−. This dianion is colorless. It occurs naturally, including in some foods. It forms a variety of salts, for example sodium oxalate (Na2C2O4), and several esters such as dimethyl ...

s and the plant may cause

dermatitis Dermatitis is inflammation of the skin, typically characterized by itchiness, redness and a rash. In cases of short duration, there may be small blisters, while in long-term cases the skin may become thickened. The area of skin involved can ...

. ''Parthenocissus inserta'' is closely related to and commonly confused with ''Parthenocissus quinquefolia'' (Virginia creeper). They differ in their means of climbing, with the tendrils twining around plant stems in ''P. inserta'' lacking the round, adhesive discs found on the tendril tips of ''P. quinquefolia'', though the ends may be club-shaped when inserted into a crevice. One consequence of this is that (unlike ''P. quinquefolia'') it cannot climb smooth walls, only through shrubs and trees. In addition, the leaflets of ''P. inserta'' are shiny when young and only slightly pale below, while those of ''P. quinquefolia'' are dull above and pale green, whitened, or glaucous below. ''P. inserta'' flowerhead branching is

dichotomous A dichotomy is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and * mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simult ...

or trichotomous, with branches of equal thickness, while ''P. quinquefolia'' branches unequally, with a definite central axis. The berries of ''P. inserta'' are larger, at 8–12 mm in diameter, versus 5–8 mm broad in ''P. quinquefolia''. The petiolules of mature ''P. inserta'' leaflets are typically longer, at 5–30 mm long, versus

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

or up to 10 mm in ''P. quinquefolia''.

Taxonomy

''Parthenocissus inserta'' was first described in 1887 by Anton Kerner, as ''Vitis inserta''. It was transferred to ''

Parthenocissus ''Parthenocissus'' , is a genus of tendril climbing plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. It contains about 12 species native to the Himalayas, eastern Asia and North America. Several are grown for ornamental use, notably ''P. henryana'', ''P. q ...

'' by Karl Fritsch in 1922. Separately, in 1893, Ellsworth Brownell Knerr described it as the variety ''vitacea'' of ''Ampelopsis quinquefolia'' (a synonym of ''

Parthenocissus quinquefolia ''Parthenocissus quinquefolia'', known as Virginia creeper, Victoria creeper, five-leaved ivy, or five-finger, is a species of flowering vine in the grape family, Vitaceae. It is native to eastern and central North America, from southeastern C ...

''). Albert Spear Hitchcock raised the variety to the full species ''Parthenocissus vitacea'' in 1894. Kerner's epithet ''inserta'' has priority over Knerr's ''vitacea'', so the correct name is ''Parthenocissus inserta''.

Ecology

The flowers of thicket creeper are frequently visited by '' Mordella marginata'', a tumbling flower

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

. Several bee species have been observed collecting pollen from the flowers, including the sweat bees '' Augochlora pura'', '' Lasioglossum subviridatum'', and ''

Lasioglossum zephyrus ''Lasioglossum zephyrus'' is a sweat bee of the family Halictidae, found in the U.S. and Canada. It appears in the literature primarily under the misspelling "''zephyrum''". It is considered a primitively eusocial bee (meaning that they do not h ...

''. The fruits are eaten by birds. Parthenocissus inserta, Jan Celliers Park.jpg, Leaves and tendrils ParthenocissusVitacea.jpg, Detail of berries

References

External links

Photo gallery
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18200021, from2=Q159489, from3=Q40057226 inserta Flora of the Western United States Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of Eastern Canada Flora of Manitoba Flora of Ontario Flora of Quebec Flora of the United States Plants described in 1887 Flora without expected TNC conservation status