Weed Biology

Taxonomy and Botanical Description

(R. W. Pemberton and P. D. Pratt)

Paederia foetida is one of 30 species in the genus Paederia in the family Rubiaceae (Mabberley, 1997).   Skunk vine is one of two Paederia species that have become naturalized in Florida.  Paederia foetida is naturalized primarily in central Florida, whereas Paederia cruddasiana Prain, commonly called sewer vine, is naturalized only in Dade County.

Wunderlin (1998) separates the genus Paederia from other members of the Rubiaceae that are either native to or naturalized in Florida by the following suite of characteristics.  The plants are woody vines, have flowers and fruits in open solitary inflorescences, lack thorns, have similarly sized flowers within the inflorescence, flowers and fruits with stalks, corollas are pale lilac in color with pubescent outer surfaces, and yellow orange fruits.  Skunk vine and sewer vine are easily separated from one another by their fruits.  Skunk vine has spherical fruits and the seed (diaspores) lack wings, whereas sewer vine has fruits that are laterally compressed and seeds that are conspicuously winged.  The leaves of sewer vine are typically larger than those of skunk vine.  The common English names of these plants relates to the odor of the leaves, which is due to the presence of sulfur compounds (Mabberley, 1997).  The odor is another helpful character to identify these vines and separate them from other plants.

Recent work (Puff, 1991a) has confirmed skunk vine and sewer vine from Florida as P. foetida and P. cruddasina.  The large native range in both temperate and tropical Asia and considerable variation in leaf morphology, pubescence and floral tube length resulted in taxonomic confusion.  The most common but invalid names of skunk vine are Paederia scandens (Lour.) Merrill, P. chinensis Hance, P. tomentosa Blume, and P. crudassiana

Mabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Second Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Puff, C. 1991a. The genus Paederia L. (Rubiaceae-Paederieae): taxonomic history, revised generic description, and subgeneric division. In: Puff, C. (ed.) The genus Paederia L. (Rubiaceae- Paederieae): A multidisciplinary  study. Opera Botanica Belgica 3: 195-204. 

Puff, C. 1991b. Revision of the genus Paederia in Asia. In: Puff, C. (ed.) The genus Paederia L. (Rubiaceae- Paederieae): A multidisciplinary  study. Opera Botanica Belgica 3: 207-289.

Wunderlin. R. P.  1998. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida, USA. 806 pp.