Leaves, deeply heart-shape at base, shiny, entire or sometimes 3-lobed, sharply and deeply toothed, 3 to 4 inches across, with long petioles. Tendrils, forked, not regularly placed. Trunk grows to a large size, often 1 foot in diameter. Fruit, a small, black, 1 to 2-seeded berry, ripening late in autumn, after frost. Panicle rather long and full. May and June.

Damp thickets and along streams, from New England to Florida, westward to Nebraska.