Pieris phillyreifolia (Hook.) DC.

Climbing Fetterbush; Vine Wicky

Vine

Perennial

Vascular

Climbing Fetterbush is a native evergreen shrub or vine in the Azalea family (Ericaceae). It is native to the southern-most tier of counties in Alabama. Climbing Fetterbush can be found in swamps, on creek banks, and in wet depressions. It is an evergreen that forms either erect to sprawling shrubs up to 3 feet in height or (more commonly) a vine climbing to 30 feet. The vine consists of flattened rhizomes that grow within the bark of Pond Cypress or Atlantic White Cedar with branches emerging at intervals along the trunk of the tree. The young stems are hairy and glandular, with older stems having reddish or gray bark that sheds in strips. Leaves are alternate, evergreen, petiolate, ovate to elliptic in outline, toothed (especially near the apex) or nearly entire, with revolute margins. Flowers are produced in axillary racemes near the apex of the stem. Individual flowers are urceolate (urn shaped), white to pinkish in color, with a long style that is sunken into the ovary apex. The fruit is a capsule. Climbing Fetterbush is listed as a S2 species in Alabama (typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state) and globally as a G3 species (imperiled globally because of rarity (6 - 20 occurrences) or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors). Climbing Fetterbush is available from some nurseries that specialize in native plants. It requires a moist, acidic soil with abundant organic matter.—A. Diamond

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Native FACW+ (NWPL) S2 (State Rank) G3 (Global Rank)

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