GROUP G: Leaves alternate, simple, blade palmately veined
KEY TO GENERA
1. Aboveground stems biennial .................................................... 2
2. Leaves deciduous, blade mostly 10-31 cm across ...................... Rubus
2. Leaves evergreen, blade 4-8 cm across ......................... Pachysandra
1. Aboveground stems perennial ................................................... 3
3. Leaves evergreen ........................................................... 4
4. Stems with no pith, vascular bundles scattered throughout ...... Smilax
4. Stems with a pith, vascular system in a circle ......................... 5
5. Leaves glabrous or with minute erect simple hairs ...... Pachysandra
5. Leaves with tiny stellate hairs with slender rays .......... Hedera
3. Leaves deciduous ........................................................... 6
6. Pith continuous and with a firm diaphragm at nodes ...................... 7
7. Twigs densely soft-hairy (See GROUP E) ................... Broussonetia
7. Twigs glabrous or nearly so ................................. Vitis
6. Pith lacking a diaphragm at nodes ....................................... 8
8. Leaf blade lobed nearly to petiole, lobes 4-14 ............. Manihot
8. Leaf blade not lobed, with fewer lobes, or most blades lobed less than halfway to petiole ................................. 9
9. Leaves 2-ranked ......................................................... Vitis
9. Leaves more than 2-ranked ....................................... 10
10. Stems with paired spines and/or bristles at nodes, or 1-2 thorns at nodes .......................................... 11
11. Stems armed with thorns, these solitary (See GROUP K) ............................................ Crataegus
11. Stems armed with paired spines and/or bristles at some nodes, bristles may also be present on internodes ......... Ribes
10. Stems without bristles, spines, or thorns ............. 12
12. Bark of twigs 3 years and older flaking or shredding ..... 13
13. Herbaceous stipules or their scars absent from twigs and petiole; bundle scars 3 ......................... Ribes
13. Herbaceous stipules and/or their scars present on petiole base;bundle scars more than 3, usually 5 ................................... Physocarpus
12. Bark of twigs 3-years old tight, not shredding or flaking .......................................................... 14
14. Stipules and their scars absent from twig ............................ Ceanothus
14. Stipules and/or their scars present on twig .......... 15
15. Twigs with a prominent longitudinal rib beginning below each stipule or its scar, outer margin of pith of year 2 twig greenish. Stipules narrowly triangular to conic, light tan to gray, to 0.5 mm across at widest point .................................... Hibiscus
15. Twigs with little or no longitudinal rib below each stipule or its scar, outer margin of pith of previous year 2 twig sometimes darker than the interior but not greenish. Stipules narrowly triangular to ovate, dark tan to maroon, 0.8-4 mm across at widest point ..... 16
16. Stipules narrowly triangular, maroon, outerside glabrous to hairy but surface not hidden ...................................... Ceanothus
16. Stipules of an ovate type, tan to light brown, outerside with dense mat of hairs hiding surface (See GROUP I) ........ Fothergilla