Florida keys hempvine

Mikania cordifolia, the Florida Keys hempvine or heartleaf hempvine, is a vigorous herbaceous to slightly woody climbing vine of the Asteraceae native to the Americas from the southern United States through the West Indies, Central America, and most of tropical South America. The slender, twining, more or less six-angled stems can reach 3-6 m in length and bear opposite, long-petioled, broadly ovate to triangular leaves with deeply cordate bases, 4-12 cm long, finely pubescent beneath, with shallowly toothed to almost entire margins and three to five prominent palmate veins from the base. From late summer into autumn the vine produces abundant terminal and axillary corymbose panicles of small, four-flowered, tubular white to creamy flower heads about 5-7 mm long, often slightly fragrant. The achenes are small, ribbed, and crowned by a tuft of capillary white bristles, dispersed by wind. The species scrambles over shrubs, fence lines, hammock margins, and forest edges in moist habitats.