Moonseed Vine

I can't explain it, but I've always had a fascination with climbing plants, whether they twine, use tendrils, aerial roots or some other mechanism.  The Moonseed vine climbing on my porch railing is a twiner.  This common woodland vine can be found in most of our local woodlands.  Its glossy dark green leaves hide small clusters of inconspicuous flowers that become dark blue berries.  The name comes from the crescent shaped seed in each berry, which also explains the Latin name.  Menispermum canadense is dioecious.  Each plant is either male or female.  Dioecious comes from the Greek for "two households".  This means that my male plant will never produce berries.  Not that the berries can be eaten.  Even though birds eat them, they are toxic to humans.   Not to worry, it also multiplies by sending out long surface roots that sprout new plants with alarming frequency.  Be warned, one moonseed vine will turn into a thicket within just a couple years.  I'm pulling out extra plants EVERYWHERE.  For sharing, they pot up very easily.  Moonseed produces wonderful screening foliage, great for summer privacy or shade.  Like most vines, their preference is to climb up, so I've been stretching my vine out horizontally and tying it to the bottom rail so new shoot climb up the uprights.  By next summer I should be able to get it to cover the entire front railing.  The vines winter over, with minimal winter loss - mostly the newest tips.  By spring the bare vines look like a tangle of electrical wire.  The vines are very tough, unlike virgins bowers which break at the lightest handling.  This also means they may push their way into the most unlikely places.