1. Cocculus carolinus (L.) DC. (Carolina moonseed, Carolina snailseed, fishberry)

Pl. 456 h–j; Map 2072

Plants relatively slender climbers. Stems to 5 m or more long. Leaves not peltate, the petiole attached at the margin of the blade. Leaf blades 4–15 cm long, 3.0–8.5(–14.0) cm wide, triangular or ovate-cordate in outline, undivided or shallowly 3- or 5-lobed, with 5 main veins from the base, the upper surface glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy, the undersurface sparsely to densely hairy, the base truncate to moderately cordate, rounded to bluntly pointed at the tip or the tips of the lobes, usually with an abrupt minute sharp point at the very tip. Inflorescences 2–12 cm long. Sepals 1.5–2.5 mm long. Petals 6. Stamens usually 6, the anthers 4-locular. Pistils 6. Fruits 5–8 mm long, more or less globose, red, the endocarp discoid, the rim and thickened margin transversely ridged, both sides concave. 2n=78. July–August.

Scattered in southern and eastern Missouri, in the Mississippi Lowlands, Big Rivers, Ozark, and Ozark Border Divisions (southeastern U.S. west to Kansas, Texas, and disjunctly Arizona; Mexico). Bottomland forests, mesic upland forests, swamps, upland prairies, glades, tops, ledges, and bases of bluffs, and banks of streams; also old fields.