Maidenhair vine, lacy wirevine

Polygonum complexum A. Cunningham, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1: 455. 1838

Plants (0.5-)1-5 m. Stems pros-trate to scandent, especially dis-tally, sometimes rooting at nodes, striate, branched, glabrescent or puberulent, distal branches brownish-puberulent. Leaves: ocrea deciduous, brownish hyaline, cylindric, 2-3 mm, margins truncate, eciliate, faces puberulent along veins; petiole 3-10 mm, brownish-puberulent; blade ovate-oblong to suborbiculate or panduriform, 0.5-2.5(-4) × 0.5-2.5(-4) cm, coriaceous, base truncate, margins entire, glabrous or scabrous, apex rounded to apiculate, glabrous adaxially and abaxially, or puberulent abaxially along midvein, obscurely punctuate abaxially. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, 5-30 mm. Pedicels ascending to spreading, 1.5-2 mm. Flowers 1-2(-5) per ocreate fascicle; perianth yellowish green or greenish; tepals connate ca. 1/ 4 their length, lanceolate-ovate to obovate, 2-4 mm, apex rounded to acute. Staminate flowers: anthers pink to purple, ovate to elliptic. Pistillate flowers: tube white in fruit. Achenes exserted or included, black or dark brown, 3-gonous, 3-4 × 2-3 mm, shiny, smooth. 2n = 20 (New Zealand).

Flowering Jul-Sep. Sunny, disturbed sites, often in urban areas; 0-500 m; introduced; Calif.; Pacific Islands (New Zealand).

Muehlenbeckia complexa is cultivated as an ornamental and escapes rarely in the flora area.