Distribution: Occurring chiefly east of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to Idaho, Utah, and Arizona, east across much of North America to the Atlantic Coast.
Habitat: Moist bottomlands and thickets.
Flowers: July-September
Origin: Introduced from central and eastern North America
Growth Duration: Annual
Conservation Status: Not of concern
High-climbing, annual vine, monoecious, with branched tendrils.
Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, 5-15 cm. long, slightly rough, palmately 5-lobed, the triangular-acute lobes remotely toothed.
The staminate flowers in few-flowered, narrow panicles on short peduncles from the leaf axils; the pistillate flowers usually solitary from the same axils; corolla with a short tube and 6 spreading, narrowly lanceolate lobes 3-6 mm. long and 1 mm. wide; sepals 6, small and bristle-like, inserted in the sinuses of the corolla; stamens 3, ovary 2-celled.
Fruit bladdery-inflated, 3.5-5 cm. long, weakly spiny; seeds flattened, ovate, 1.5 cm. long.
Publication: Fl. N. Amer. 1(3): 542. 1840.
PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Echinocystis lobata in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database.
WA Flora Checklist: Echinocystis lobata checklist entry.
OregonFlora: Echinocystis lobata information.
E-Flora BC: Echinocystis lobata atlas page.
CalPhotos: Echinocystis lobata photos.
USDA Plants: Echinocystis lobata information.
