High-climbing vine with bright purplish-red branches; lvs triangular-ovate to subrotund, 8-14 cm, 3-5-lobed, often to below the middle, sparsely pubescent beneath on the veins and in the vein-axils, the terminal lobe in 3-lobed lvs triangular and prolonged to an acuminate tip, in 5-lobed lvs constricted at base to rounded sinuses; infls 8-15 cm; fr black, slightly or not at all glaucous. Swamps; s. Ind., c. Ill., and Mo. to La. and Tex.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.