Mikania scandens

If most people in Texas are surprised to learn that there’s a local member of the sunflower family that’s a willowy tree, they’re equally surprised to find out there’s a member of the sunflower family here that’s a vine. If it’s any consolation, and with deference to The Way Things Are Supposed To Be, in neither case do the blossoms of those two species pretend to look like sunflowers. Shown here is the vine, Mikania scandens, called climbing hempvine and climbing hempweed. This one was flowering as it did its climbing on a cattail alongside a pond in northeast Austin on August 11; the photograph is from the same session that produced the minimalist picture of a bulrush leaf turning colors.

For more information about Mikania scandens, including a state-clickable map showing the many places in eastern North America where this species grows, you can visit the USDA website.

© 2011 Steven Schwartzman