I'm stumped. Ive looked at Lilaceae, Melastomataceae, Urticaceae, Commelinaceae, and can't find anything? It looks like the basal foliage is alternate, and the stem foliage opposite?🤔

If you've actually seen them, can you describe those "nondescript" flowers? Number of petals? Shape of bloom? Monoecious, dioecious (stamens, pistils, both?). Anything will help.

Thanks all for looking! Jay, I hear you: thats pretty much where I am too. the basal foliage was too tight to tell orientation

The person who grows this plant is well-known to be… brief. So I just couldn’t drag more out of him. He said small white flowers with long sepals. That’s all we’re going to get until it actually blooms again.

I’ve grown Schisandra chinense. Not that.

O, I didn't for a minute think so, macranthos, but I am on a mission to get my ID spidey senses up to scratch, so I had better get used to being wrong, wrong wrong. Have been trained up for this by offspring so....you know.

Are any seeds forming? I enlarged the photos as far as possible on my monitor, but couldn't make out any seeds, green, red, or otherwise. If you can do a macro shot of the seeds when they do form, it might help towards an ID. I'm assuming that it has (or will) bloomed and was (or will be) pollinated...

Possibly one of the Dioscorea species?

Looks like Wild Buckwheat.

Triptospermum japonicum!

I think that's it, Jay. Good for you. That's one obscure plant. Gentianaceae. The tri-veined leaves are a good clue for the species that I didn't pick up on.

There are *very* few photos of it on the internet, so I'd still love to see the bloom and fruit on Macranthos' friend's plant. I couldn't find a photo of the fruit/seed, just the trumpet shaped flower.

I was kicking myself for not considering Gentianaceae either fig. And I have a Gentianopsis cristata growing in a bog pot. Gentianales are my favorite order, and the diversity and radiation is amazing. I can't take credit. I had help from a brilliant botanist friend. He's one of the 2 guys that split Isotrema and Endodeca from Aristolochia. Gentianaceae is so diverse. You have Gentiana, and Sabatia, and then there's Frasera. Gentianales is special to me because of my love for milkweeds. How amazing that it has radiated into genera like Dischidia that evolved hollow leaves and is symbiotic with ants, and the incredible thing is, Dischidia flowers arent bizarre and elaborate, but instead look like simple gentian flowers. And I've never seen or heard of a vining Gentian before. The large trumpet flowers seem quite large compared to the leaves.

Plant life is amazing. The adaptations can be mundane, or bizarre, but life finds a way to fit into the smallest ecological niche imaginable.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I think Dischidia vidallii is on the bizarre side of the spectrum, lol.

Wow, I had no expectation that this one would actually get solved! Well done. It really does look like the plant.

I wonder if it can be grown as a house plant? We only have 1 Frasera species here in the east. You have more out there. Have you encountered any? Im really too old to start a plant from seed. Our eastern species can take between 12 to 15 years to bloom, and then it seeds and dies. I haven't seen the real live plant yet. There's a 40 acre prairie about an hours drive away that has several in various stages of growth.

Asclepiadoideae, formerly had it's own family, Asclepiadaceae. Molecular studies showed that family to be nested in Apocynaceae. Changed to subfamily Asclepiadoideae in family Apocynaceae. 5 tribes in subfamily Asclepiadoideae. 348 genera, 2,900 species. The subfamily has small to large forbs, vines, and tree-like lianas.

Tribes

Asclepiadeae,Ceropegiae, Eustegieae, Fockeeae, Marsdenieae.

The tribe Ceropegieae was formerly Stapelieae. Molecular studies showed that the stapeliads were nested in Ceropegia, making them Ceropegiads.

Gentianales, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae, Asclepias

Asclepias incarnata subsp. pulchra

Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly Weed. Asclepias tuberosa has 4? varieties, rolfsii, tuberosa, and 2 as of yet, unnamed varieties.

Asclepias hirtella, Asclepias longifolia var. hirtella. The variety hirtella's range far exceeds the range of longifolia, which only occurs in far southern coastal areas. Asclepias hirtella is now given species status. The southern longifolia has more deeply colored flowers.

Asclepias speciosa, Showy Milkweed. Believed to be introduced to Illinois from further west. Assesment by the great Dr. Robert Betz. He made extreme efforts to protect the rare and almost extinct Asclepias meadii, Meads Milkweed. The flowers of Showy Milkweed reflect the bizarre radiation of the milkweeds into the succulent Ceropegiad starfish flowers.

Asclepias purpurascens, Purple Milkweed.