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Cissus (Greek name of ivy). Vitaceae. Mostly tendril-climbing shrubs, a few of which are grown in the open, and others under glass for the handsome often colored foliage.
Very like Vitis (with which some authors unite it): at best a mixed group botanically, and capable of good definition only when certain groups or subdivisions are removed from it. For the characters of related genera, see Ampelopsis, Parthenocissus, Vitis. As constituted by Gilg in Engler & Prantl's "Pflanzenfamilien," the genus includes Cayratia but which might well be kept distinct. This subgenus, of which two or three interesting species from China and Japan are in cult. differs from Cissus proper in the always compound lvs., which are usually pedate, the axillary infl., the thin or even membranous disk, the 2-4-seeded fr., and the plants mostly herbaceous. Excluding Cayratia, Cissus is known by usually simple lvs., 1-seeded fr., and the disk being deeply 4-lobed or separated into 4 gland-like bodies. From Ampelopsis, as that genus is characterized in this work, Cissus differs in the 4-merous fls., often herbaceous, and fleshy st., the 1-seeded rather than 2-4-seeded fr. and in the disk not being cup-like and not irregularly lobed. From Vitis, it diners in its 4-merous fls., its expanding petals (the corolla not falling off as a cap), the 4-parted disk, its 1-seeded mostly dry and inedible fr., and other characters. Cissus comprises probably 200 species, widely dispersed in tropical regions and a few of them reaching extra-tropical areas (as in the southern U. S.): mostly climbers by means of tendrils without enlarged or disk-like ends, rarely erect shrubs or even perennial herbs, sometimes with greatly thickened sts. either underground or above: lvs. alternate, simple or compound, with tendril (if present) opposite or at same node: fls. usually perfect, in mostly umbel-like cymes that are terminal or axillary; parts of the fl. in 4's, the petals at length spreading and falling separately; disk around the ovary 4-parted or -separated; style long and mostly slender rather than conical: fr. typically a dryish 1-seeded berry (2-4-seeded in Cayratia).
In cultivation there are very few species of Cissus, and these are mostly the tendril-climbing Vitis-like species grown under glass for the handsome foliage. The best known is C. discolor, although other species are likely to become widespread and popular in greenhouses. The fleshy-stemmed erect species are sometimes grown in botanical collections for the cactus-like forms and for illustrations in adaptive morphology. The species are readily propagated by cuttings.
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