Climbing False Buckwheat

Lately this vine has been growing so vigorously, not only did it climb up my old apple tree, but great lengths of it are growing over the goldenrod around the tree, weighing it down.


(Click on image to enlarge)

I found it hard to identify because Newcomb's Wildflower Guide expects you to know how many petals a wildflower's blossoms have. And among all these white appendages, I wasn't sure whether I was looking at fruit or flower.



Eventually I just had to go paging through the "vine" parts of the book, looking for a resemblance … which I found in the drawing of Climbing False Buckwheat. Newcomb says the tiny blossoms have five regular parts. The bigger, frilly, oval or teardrop-shaped things are the fruit.



Perhaps because what's shown in this photo is the farthest growth of the vine, hence the youngest, the stem hasn't turned red yet. Here is an older part, showing the distinctive red stem and heart-shaped leaf.