| Author | Jacquin | |
| Distribution | Throughout the Piedmont, and nearly throughout the Coastal Plain, but scarce in the far eastern counties. Of sporadic occurrence in the Mountains. This species is typically considered as not native to the U.S., but Weakley (2018) says: "Native distribution obscure, apparently native to temperate North America, including our area."
This is a very widespread species, occurring over most of the eastern and southern U.S. | |
| Abundance | Fairly common to common in the Piedmont and the upper Coastal Plain, becoming just fairly common in most of the rest of the Coastal Plain, scarce near the coast. Rare to uncommon in the Mountains. | |
| Habitat | This is a weedy species, growing in disturbed places such as fallow fields, waste ground, roadsides, and wooded borders. |
| Phenology | Blooms from July to frost, and fruits shortly after flowering. | |
| Identification | This is a pubescent species, being an herbaceous vine growing to about 5-6 feet long, often twining. Most populations have very distinctive tri-lobed leaves, with the middle lobe quite pinched near the base and the outer ones typically with an eared base instead of rounded. However, one form of the species has cordate leaves, hardly distinguishable from some other species, though the leaves are quite pubescent. The flowers, growing from leaf axils, have very hairy pedicels; and each flower is light blue or sky blue, usually with a white center, funnel-shaped, and about 1.5 inches long and across. Though the occasional flower of the abundant weed I. purpurea might be blue, it is usually a richer blue, and many other flowers on the same vine may be purple or some additional color; also, the leaves are generally cordate and not pubescent. I. hederacea is a familiar vine to most biologists across the state and seldom presents an identification issue. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None, though RAB (1968) considered the two forms with different leaves as varieties -- var. hederacea for the tri-lobed one and var. integriuscula for the unlobed one.
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| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | FACU link |
