VINES (MAK)

HABIT: By "habit" is meant the general form of the plant, as expressed by the growth of the stem. The stem of a vine is the much elongated structure rising above the roots, bearing leaves and flowers. But not all plants with an elongated, wandering stem are vines in a strict sense. Some are spawling or climbing shrubs (see discussion above). Woody vines (lianas) and woody climbers have a woody main stem; however, because the stems may be greatly elongated, the woody part might be missed. A vine that is woody only for a short section at the base may be classified here as herbaceous.

LEAF FORM: Leaf form describes how the leaves are borne on the stem (either alternating or opposite along the stem; sometimes both can occur) and whether leaves are simple or compound. Compound leaves are divided into leaflets and these can range in number from 2 to many per leaf. "Compound odd" means the number of leaflets is an odd number: leaflets are paired, with one additional at tip of leaf. "Compound even" has all leaflets paired.

TENDRIL TYPE: A tendril is a slender plant part growing off the stem and used to grasp support for climbing. Not all vines have tendrils or the tendrils may be present but sparse. Plants lacking tendrils must either twine around a support, creep along the ground, or grow up into adjacent vegetation, supported on or laying across other plants (to wit, sprawlers and climbers).

FLOWER:Flowers are important structures to aid in identifying a particular vine to genus, but often the vine is encountered outside its flowering period. Vegetative (non-flower) characteristics should be sufficient to produce a short list of candidates in most cases. Flower colors cover an extremely wide range, so here the colors are grouped, first by considering the dominant (main) color and limiting that to a color set (for example: red and orange, blue and purple). A minor color might be the color of the throat, or spots, or floral structures other than the conspicuous petals. Try submitting without the minor color as this can interfere with the code matching (i.e., needs work).

FRUIT: Like flower color, the fruit borne on a vine can be an exceptionally good characteristic for identifying a plant. Unfortunately, the variety of fruit types and the unfamiliarity of most non-botanists with the rich terminology applied to fruit types makes this property one difficult to characterize. Te approach used here is to consider fruit types as either dry or fleshy, and dry (hard or solid) types as either a membranous capsule, or some solid or hard form. Bean-like fruits (pods) of legumes (Family Fabaceae) are singled out as these are found on a large number of vine species. Choices may be expanded in this category.

OTHER: A plant may have a distinct property that can be used to set it apart from many other species of vine-like plants: exceptional hairiness, or thorns, or a distinct odor. Thorns only occur on woody vines; spines and prickles may occur on either woody or herbaceous stems. The term "malodorous" means having a disagreeable odor; to determine, crush and smell a few leaves. If you can identify a vine as a fern, or it seems to look much like a fern, checking this characteristic will produce a very short list of possibilities.



CPIE MultiAccess Key (MAK): Herbaceous and woody vines to MAK homepage. AECOS logos below on right and bottom will affect a return to AECOS website homepage.		DATABASE: MAK_4 TOTAL DB TAXA: 81 (81 LINES) VINES 0 - SPRAWLERS 0 - LIANAS 0 - CLIMBERS 0 LINES MATCHED: 0 REJECTED: 0

Plant is a vine or vine-like with a much elongated woody or non-woody (herbaceous) stem and typically climbing, gripping with tendrils or twining, or in some cases having structures—such as thorns or roots at nodes—that hold the plant in place as the stem elongates and climbs upwards into the canopy. But what is a plant whose habit is basically "sprawling" (some vines run along the ground) or "scrambling": climbing up or onto shrubs, trees, or trelluses without actually gripping the host? Bougainvillea in the landscape is maintained as a shrub; but not maintained, becomes a shrubby climber. Although the distinction between sprawlers/climbers and vines/lianas is certainly not a sharp one, numerous species fall into the former category and may be regarded as vines in common parlance. If uncertain of the best characterization of the specimen at hand, run it through other habit types. The DB "MAK_4" presently contains a total of 81 taxa covering woody and herbaceous vines and climbers known to occur in the Hawaiian Islands. The total number of vine and vine-like species occuring in Hawai‘i is unknown; This data base covers most ornamentals and all but very rare naturalized or native species of vine-like plants from numerous families of vascular plants found in the Hawaiian Archipelago.		SELECTED CHARACTER MATCH GENERAL DESCRIPTION (based on selections): Match codes you selected:
		Species - Common Name	Status Family	Reference List
Select a best choice (or none) from each category: HABIT herbaceous vine herbaceous sprawler woody vine (liana) climber (usually woody) LEAF FORM simple, alternate simple, opposite deeply lobed palmate pinnate, compound, odd pinnate, compound, even TENDRIL TYPE absent, stem twining single, coiling double, coiling multiple, claw-like FLOWER (SHAPE) regular, radial symmetry bilateral symmetry irregular (dense spike) FLOWER (MAIN COLOR) mostly white yellow red (pink) or orange purple to blue green FLOWER (MINOR COLOR) white yellow red/orange purple/blue green FRUIT dry, membranous dry, solid or woody bean-like, pod soft, fleshy NOTABLE CHARACTERISTIC densely hairy thorns or spines maloderous a fern or fern-like	HABIT: By "habit" is meant the general form of the plant, as expressed by the growth of the stem. The stem of a vine is the much elongated structure rising above the roots, bearing leaves and flowers. But not all plants with an elongated, wandering stem are vines in a strict sense. Some are spawling or climbing shrubs (see discussion above). Woody vines (lianas) and woody climbers have a woody main stem; however, because the stems may be greatly elongated, the woody part might be missed. A vine that is woody only for a short section at the base may be classified here as herbaceous. LEAF FORM: Leaf form describes how the leaves are borne on the stem (either alternating or opposite along the stem; sometimes both can occur) and whether leaves are simple or compound. Compound leaves are divided into leaflets and these can range in number from 2 to many per leaf. "Compound odd" means the number of leaflets is an odd number: leaflets are paired, with one additional at tip of leaf. "Compound even" has all leaflets paired. TENDRIL TYPE: A tendril is a slender plant part growing off the stem and used to grasp support for climbing. Not all vines have tendrils or the tendrils may be present but sparse. Plants lacking tendrils must either twine around a support, creep along the ground, or grow up into adjacent vegetation, supported on or laying across other plants (to wit, sprawlers and climbers). FLOWER:Flowers are important structures to aid in identifying a particular vine to genus, but often the vine is encountered outside its flowering period. Vegetative (non-flower) characteristics should be sufficient to produce a short list of candidates in most cases. Flower colors cover an extremely wide range, so here the colors are grouped, first by considering the dominant (main) color and limiting that to a color set (for example: red and orange, blue and purple). A minor color might be the color of the throat, or spots, or floral structures other than the conspicuous petals. Try submitting without the minor color as this can interfere with the code matching (i.e., needs work). FRUIT: Like flower color, the fruit borne on a vine can be an exceptionally good characteristic for identifying a plant. Unfortunately, the variety of fruit types and the unfamiliarity of most non-botanists with the rich terminology applied to fruit types makes this property one difficult to characterize. Te approach used here is to consider fruit types as either dry or fleshy, and dry (hard or solid) types as either a membranous capsule, or some solid or hard form. Bean-like fruits (pods) of legumes (Family Fabaceae) are singled out as these are found on a large number of vine species. Choices may be expanded in this category. OTHER: A plant may have a distinct property that can be used to set it apart from many other species of vine-like plants: exceptional hairiness, or thorns, or a distinct odor. Thorns only occur on woody vines; spines and prickles may occur on either woody or herbaceous stems. The term "malodorous" means having a disagreeable odor; to determine, crush and smell a few leaves. If you can identify a vine as a fern, or it seems to look much like a fern, checking this characteristic will produce a very short list of possibilities.	No taxa in the MAK_4 DB match your selections. NOTES: The following may be helpful: The TERMINOLOGY used in this key may not always match exactly that used by botanists, being adapted here to make this key more accessible to the casual user. Read the paragraphs presented on this page in column to left to find definitions for terms used here to describe the parts of vine-like plants. CONFIRMING AN IDENTIFICATION will require careful consideration of the species description provided in the reference link or some other source (see References for other suggestions). "MAN" refers to Vols 1 & 2 of Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai‘i by Wagner, Herbst, and Sohmer; "S&H" refers to A Tropical Garden Flora by Staples and Herbst; "Plm" refers to Hawai‘i's Ferns and Fern Allies by Palmer. A number in brackets indicates that a photo or drawing is provided in the referenced source (gives plate number in the Manual). These reference sources are known to provide a species description (and figure) on the page indicated. However, the casual user may find that a search of the internet for each of the taxa on the short list of possible identifications can provide a clinching photo or species decription, and is a logical next step whether one or several species are listed. STATUS CODES presented are as follows: "End" = an endemic species; "Ind" = an indigenous species; "Nat" = a naturalized species; "Pol" = an early Poynesian introduction ("canoe plant"); and "Orn" = an ornamental species, not naturalized. A question mark should be read as "probably".		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Herbaceous and woody vines