Question: This Humulus plant is growing in the side a a road I walk. Is it native? How can I tell …
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Question
This Humulus plant is growing in the side a a road I walk. Is it native? How can I tell the difference between Humulus americanus and H.lupulus? I see some sites listing H. lupulus as native? Do we have a native hops in Maine? Thanks for your help.
Answer
Dear JoAnnaG@, Humulus lupulus is not native to North America, it is an Old World native. Treatments that consider it native include under it Humulus americanus as a subspecies (i.e., H. lupulus subsp. americanus). Separating these two species is difficult because most of the characteristics are micromorphological and rely on density of hairs and glands on the leaf surfaces. There is one macroscropic character and that is the hairiness of the nodes (H. americanus has densely hairy nodes where the leaves are produced from the stem and H. lupulus has sparsely hairy stems). Good luck with the identification.
