| Author | (Aiton) Greene ex Britton, Sterns, and Poggenburg | |
| Distribution | Only in the Mountains, and essentially just the central and southern ranges; oddly, just a single county record north of Avery County (Alleghany County). The Rutherford and Transylvania records are from iNaturalist.
This Northern species ranges from eastern Canada south to PA and northern IL, south in the Appalachians to southwestern NC and adjacent TN. | |
| Abundance | Uncommon and local in the southern 2/3rds of the Mountains, but very rare in the northern 1/3rd. This is a State Special Concern species. | |
| Habitat | This is a species of high pH soil in mafic/calcareous rock habitats. It grows along cliffs, rocky slopes, roadbanks, edges of moist to mesic thickets, and openings in cool forests. | |
| Phenology | Blooms from June to September, and fruits shortly after flowering. | |
| Identification | This is an herbaceous vine that sprawls over other vegetation and can reach 10-12 feet long or high. It has alternate leaves, each consisting of 3 leaflets, and each leaflet is typically glove-shaped, with single small side lobes and a wide central lobe. Some leaflets can be unlobed. There are 3-5 flowers at each leaf axil, these dangling downward and pink in color. The flower is essentially an inflated tube with 2 tiny corolla lobes, somewhat like that of Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis), and is about 3/4-1 inch long. This vine can hardly be confused with anything else, and because it is scarce, finding it, especially in bloom, is always an exciting moment. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Climbing Fumitory, Cliff-harlequin | |
| State Rank | S2 | |
| Global Rank | G4 | |
| State Status | SC-V | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
