I am trying to identify a vine found on a black walnut tree along the
side of our road. It has single leaves, heart shaped, with parallel
veins, about 2 inches wide and 3 inches long. It has a ball shaped
cluster of berries or nuts that are green to purple, about 1 1/2 inch
ball, each berry has a stem that is like a radius and they are all
attached at the center, making it sort of a hollow ball of berries or
nuts. This is in northwest Indiana.

wrote:
I am trying to identify a vine found on a black walnut tree along the
side of our road. It has single leaves, heart shaped, with parallel
veins, about 2 inches wide and 3 inches long. It has a ball shaped
cluster of berries or nuts that are green to purple, about 1 1/2 inch
ball, each berry has a stem that is like a radius and they are all
attached at the center, making it sort of a hollow ball of berries or
nuts. This is in northwest Indiana.


Sounds like a Smilax. Could be Smilax rotundifolia.

Philip Wright

wrote in message
ups.com...
I am trying to identify a vine found on a black walnut tree along the
side of our road. It has single leaves, heart shaped, with parallel
veins, about 2 inches wide and 3 inches long. It has a ball shaped
cluster of berries or nuts that are green to purple, about 1 1/2 inch
ball, each berry has a stem that is like a radius and they are all
attached at the center, making it sort of a hollow ball of berries or
nuts. This is in northwest Indiana.

Sounds like it's probably a species of _Smilax_. They often have
leaves and clusters [umbels] of flowers and fruits much as you
describe.

If so, the stem may well have been tough and wiry and had numerous
sharp prickles or spines, and the leaves would have had pairs of
tendrils at their bases. However, there are also some more herbaceous,
non-spiny species.

There are a considerable number of Smilax species in the US; I'm
not sure which are commonest in NW Indiana.

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/images/...lowers_VK.html
http://www.ionxchange.com/species_pa..._herbacea.html
http://www.swsbm.com/Images/S/Smilax.jpg
http://www.nicertutor.com/sketches/s...lasioneura.jpg
http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/mbierner/b...x_bona-nox.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...na&btnG=Search

cheers

That's it. Thanks.
Also explains the "what died" smell earlier this summer.