A sprawling or climbing vine with hairy stems and untoothed heart-shaped leaves, opposite each other. Flowers star-shaped with 5 long maroon petals. Blooms in summer. Fruit a pod that splits open and releases flattened seeds attached to bits of fluff that carry them away on the wind.. Empty pods, sometimes with a few lingering seeds, may persist into winter.

An unusual native vine. Rare in Wildwood, in open areas on the eastern slope.

The star-shaped maroon flowers and vining habit are distinctive. It is a relative of the more familiar milkweeds (Asclepias sp.)