Cissus trifoliata
Arizona Grape Ivy
Family: Vitaceae
This is a deciduous vine with tendrils, related to the grape. Though often grown as a vine, it can be used as a ground cover as well, spreading almost indefinitely—this plant won’t grow much more than a foot tall unless it climbs another shrub or other other object. Arizona grape ivy flowers in the cool season (November through May). Flowers are creamy yellow and are followed by fruits that are black or deep purple, juicy, and globose, with 1-4 seeds. Plants grow from thickened tubers.
Grow in full sun to shade, with moderate water. Hardy to -10°F.
Larval food plant for the mournful sphinx moth (Enyo lugubris), the satellite sphinx moth (Eumorpha satellitia), and the vine sphinx moth (Eumorpha vitis). Fruits are consumed by birds and other critters. Naturally found in riparian areas, it is also found in agricultural areas and escaped in waste areas, and roadsides.
Cissus is from the Greek -ivy- and trifoliata refers to the trifoliate leaves.
Found in Found in agricultural areas and escaped in waste areas, roadsides, river banks, upland slopes, sandy washes and canyons, distributed in southeast Arizona, west through the southeastern United States, and south throughout Mexico, and its natural distribution is widening.