Medicine vine Medicine vine

Vines 20–25 m. Stems much-branched, ascending, green. Leaves: blade elliptic to ovate or obovate, 5–14 × 2–8 cm. Inflorescences 4–12 cm, brownish tomentulose or puberulent. Flowers 4–8 mm diam.; sepals 0.5–1.2 mm; petals 2.5–4 mm. Capsules 4–8 × 1.5–5 cm. Seeds 1.3–2.5 × 4–7 mm, wing obovate-oblong, 2–4 cm.

Flowering spring–summer; fruiting fall–winter. Hammocks, stream banks, shores, mangrove and hardwood swamps; 0–10 m; Fla.; s Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.

Hippocratea volubilis often climbs to the tops of trees, binding itself and the supporting vegetation into an impenetrable network.