Size: vine (climbs using holdfasts), 60-80' average height at maturity
Buds: imbricate, greenish brown, 2 loosely overlapping scales, terminal is large and glabrous
Leaves: deciduous, opposite, 2-4" long and wide, simple, broad-ovate, tips acute or acuminate, margins serrate, dark green in summer, sometimes yellow in fall
Twigs: brown, glabrous, bark firm on young branches
Flowers: monoecious, sepals white, in flat-topped clusters up to 10" across, bloom in June and July, fragrant
Fruit: small capsule
Bark: brown, conspicuously exfoliating on older branches and main trunk, root-like holdfasts along internodes
