Question
Hi,
I've looked through the forum's answers to this question, and followed up on the references, but can't seem to get a clear answer:
How do I identify an American Bittersweet vine as either male or female? The closest I've come is "the females have the berries", which does not help if you only have one vine! One reference did say that the *male* flowers have yellow centers, but did not say what color the female flowers are. Help!  Thanks!

Answer
Hi Kathy,
Thanx for your question.  As far as I know, there is no way to determine the sex of bittersweet plants until they are fully mature and in bloom.  If you are a good botanist, you may be able to differentiate the female bloom from the male.  Not trying to be a smart alec, just saying, I haven't tried to tell the sexes this way yet.  May have to just for the experience.  ;o)  Here's what the U.S. Forestry Service says:

Thefunctional male flowers have five stamens about as
long as the petals and a vestigial pistil. The
functional female flowers have a syncarpous pistil
with a three-lobed stigma, short columnar style,
and well-developed superior ovary.

So basically, the pistil in the male is not pronounced or very obvious.  The way I understand this (not being a botanist) a carpel surrounds the ovule (which produces the seed) and so if something is syncarpous it means it has a collective group of carpels that are fused together.  The stigma is the sticky tip of the pistil that receives the pollen.  Okay.  The description says the female flower has a well-developed superior ovary.  The best way to try to visualize this is by looking at the flowers of squash or cucumbers.  The male flower is just a flower on a stem while the female flower has a green or yellow knob on its end that is attached to a stem.  That knob is the ovary which later becomes the fruit so, the female bittersweet flower should have a small knob behind the flower and the male will not.  I know this probably isn't what you were looking for but it's been my experience that sex cannot be determined until the plant is in bloom and mature.  I'm sorry.

Tom