Menispermum canadense L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Menispermum canadense' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/menispermum/menispermum-canadense/). Accessed 2025-04-21.

Family

Menispermaceae

Genus

Menispermum

Common Names

Canada Moonseed

Other taxa in genus

Menispermum dauricum

Glossary

axil: Angle between the upper side of a leaf and the stem.
ovate: Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
peltate: Disc-shaped and attached at centre of lower surface to a stalk (e.g. leaf of Nasturtium Tropaeolum majus).
raceme: Unbranched inflorescence with flowers produced laterally usually with a pedicel. racemose In form of raceme.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Menispermum canadense' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/menispermum/menispermum-canadense/). Accessed 2025-04-21.

Leaves of Menispermum canadense are ovate to heart-shaped, roundish, with usually three, five, or seven angular lobes. Meise Botanic Garden (19981146–19 from Ontario), Belgium. 27 May 2011. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

A deciduous climber, producing a dense tangle of slightly downy, slender, twining shoots 12 or 15 ft high. Leaves 4 to 7 in. wide, ovate to heart-shaped and roundish, with usually three, five, or seven angular lobes, strongly veined and pale beneath, dark green above; leaf-stalk slender, 3 to 4 in. long, attached to the blade near, but not at the base (peltate). Flowers numerous, inconspicuous, greenish yellow, borne on a slender, long-stalked raceme, one of which is produced a little above each leaf-axil. Fruits in long loose racemes, nearly black when mature, about the size of a black currant. Each fruit contains one crescent-shaped seed. Bot. Mag., t. 1910.

Native of eastern N. America, where it is widely spread; cultivated in England since the end of the 17th century. Its stems although truly woody have a herbaceous appearance, and do not live long. The exceptional vigour of the plant and its habit of spreading rapidly by means of underground suckers render it unsuitable for planting near delicate or slow-growing shrubs, which it is apt to smother, but it makes a good summer covering for a wall or summer-house, and is distinctly ornamental when in fruit. It can be pruned back to the ground every winter.

Foliage of Menispermum canadense (Orto Botanico di Lucca, Italy, September 2023). Image John Grimshaw.

Menispermum canadense is native of eastern North America, where it is widely spread. Here planted against a wooden support at Meise Botanic Garden (19981146–19 from Ontario), Belgium. 5 November 2010. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Flowers of Menispermum canadense are numerous, inconspicuous, greenish yellow, borne on a slender, long-stalked raceme. Meise Botanic Garden (19981146–19 from Ontario), Belgium. 27 May 2011. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on the greenish yellow flowers of Menispermum canadense. There are followed by fruits about the size of a blackcurrant. Meise Botanic Garden (19981146–19 from Ontario), Belgium. 27 May 2011. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

The exceptional vigour of Menispermum canadense and its habit of spreading rapidly by means of underground suckers render it unsuitable for planting near delicate or slow-growing shrubs. Meise Botanic Garden (19981146–19 from Ontario), Belgium. 27 May 2011. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Twining shoots on Menispermum canadense at the Plantentuin Universiteit Gent, Belgium (10 June 2020). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Shallowly 5– to 7-lobed leaves on Menispermum canadense (Plantentuin Universiteit Gent, Belgium – 10 June 2020). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Long-stalked leaves on Menispermum canadense (Plantentuin Universiteit Gent, Belgium – 10 June 2020). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Remnants of infructescences on Menispermum canadense (Plantentuin Universiteit Gent, Belgium – 10 June 2020). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Lamina base with petiole attachment close to the margin on Menispermum canadense (Plantentuin Universiteit Gent, Belgium – 10 June 2020). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.