Foliage
Coastal manroot has the least pubescent bud, leaves, and branches of all the manroot species. Northern populations are nearly hairless with glossy leaves. Vines appear in late winter or early spring in response to increased rainfall, and can climb or scramble to a length of 6m. Its leaves typically have five lobes with individual plants showing wide variation in leaf size and lobe length. Although leaf size is highly variable, Coastal manroot tends to have larger leaves than other marah species.
Vines emerge from a large, hard tuberous root which can reach several meters in length and weigh in excess of 100kg. Newly exposed tubers can be seen along roadcuts or eroded slopes and have a scaly, tan-colored surface. Injured or decaying tubers take on a golden or orange color.
Read more about this topic: Marah Oreganus
Famous quotes containing the word foliage:
“Through light-obliterating garden foliage what magic drum?
Down limb and breast or down that glimmering belly move his mouth and sinewy tongue.
What from the forest came? What beast has licked its young?”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Birds which are the same color as the foliage in which they nest are less likely to be disturbed by other birds who want to drop in and chat, and therefore last longer.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)