Native Plants

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Thursday - December 01, 2011

From: Sunny Isles Beach, FL
Region: Southeast
Topic: Plant Identification, Vines
Title: Florida hanging vine with occasional red tongue-like leaves
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I live in south Florida and I used to grow a hanging vine that had green slender leaves and an occasional red leaf that looked like a tongue that protruded horizontally from the plant. do you know what the plant is?

ANSWER:

Our focus and expertise here at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is with plants that are native to North America. You can search in our Native Plant Database for a native vine that looks like your description by doing a COMBINATION SEARCH choosing "Florida" in the Select State or Province slot and "Vine" in Habit (general appearance). This will give you a list (with photos) of more than 70 vines native to Florida. Looking through the list I didn't find a vine that matched your description but you should try the search yourself to see if you find one.

South Florida is home to many introduced tropical plants so my guess is that your vine is one of those. You can look through the following sites to see if you recognize your vine. Some of these pages include both native and introduced vines.

Wild Florida Vines
About Vines–Florida Vines
Flowering Vines for Florida from the University of Florida IFAS Service. Here is one from that list, Gloriosa rothschildiana, Gloriosa lily, that looks a little like your description. You can see photos of the others by copying and pasting their scientific names in the Google Images search window.