Humulus lupulus
L. HopVine, climbing to c. 8 m high, perennating via rhizomes. Leaves cordate and entire to deeply 3- or 5-lobed; 5-25 cm long and about as wide; margins crenate-serrate; upper surface with scattered tubercle-based hairs; lower surface usually more sparsely hairy and dotted with yellowish resin. Petioles about as long as lamina. Stipules paired, triangular, c. 5-10 mm long, persistent. Male inflorescences to 12 cm long, but male plants not known in Australia. Female inflorescences c. globose, 5-8 mm diam., one to few per axil on peducles c. 1 cm long; stigmas 3-5 mm long; bracts at anthesis ovate, pubescent, c. 2 mm long, but soon enlarging. Infructescences ovoid, 2.5-4 cm long, 2-3 cm wide; bracts ovoid, 12-15 mm long, heavily glandular toward base; fertile seeds probably not produced in Australia. Flowers early summer; fruits late summer-autumn.
VVP, GipP, HNF. Native to Europe, Asia and N America but precise limits obscured through long history of cultivation. Recorded from former or current areas of hop production (Warrnambool, Whitfield, Bruthen areas). Commercial production in Australia mainly now from the Ovens Valley in NE Victoria and Tasmania.
The source of aromatic hops used in beer-making. Many cultivars are known, the commonest in Australia being 'Pride of Ringwood'. Male plants are unknown from Victoria (and possibly Australia), the 'hops' of fertilised female flowers regarded as useless for brewing. 'Wild' plants are more likely the result of persistence or fragmentation of rhizomes than from seed, although occasional monoecious plants are known.
