The correct name for these somewhat miscellaneous plants remains uncertain; they may match H.E. Ballard's (in W) "glabrate" or "pseudo-stoneana" variants of V. palmata, They are close to palmata (= "triloba" of F), but with largely glabrous, glabrate or minutely pubescent leaves (F). Some authors have considered these result from hybridization (e.g. Gil-ad 1997, 1998). A few unmapped Ky. colls. with less lobing appear to grade into affinis, communis or hirsutula. Plants mapped here may belong with a group of taxa that have been described as species in the central Appalachians and Piedmont (V. stoneana House), Coastal Plain (V. chalcosperma Brainerd, V. esculenta Ell., V. lovelliana Brainerd), and midwest (V. viarum Pollard). Some of these names may represent reasonable taxa with different hybrid origins (Gil-ad 1997; W). Within Ky., the name stoneana has been applied to more deeply lobed plants of this group (with several hybrids according to F), including colls. of B (US) and her contemp-oraries from Ky. (LETC, LEWI, WHIT). However, H. Ballard (in prep.) has indicated that stoneana sensu stricto is known only from the transition from Piedmont to Coastal Plain; "It is distinct from the V. palmata complex in its glabrate foliage, distinctively biternately dissected summer leaf blades, acuminate sepals, pale usually unspotted seeds and preference for rich loamy soils on mesic forest slopes." Ballard has stated that the Appalachian plants named stoneana by Russell and others represent a "putative hybrid melange". The names esculenta or lovelliana have been applied to some of these, including M. Wharton colls. from eastern counties at DHL, MICH, EKY, NY, TENN), also from a coll. from MCRA (Russell 1965) These two names have been considered synonymous with palmata (or "triloba") in some recent treatments (Gil-ad 1997, McKinney & Russell 2002). However, H. Ballard (in prep.) has indicated that esculenta is a synonym of V . edulis Spach on the Coastal Plain [= V. palmata var. heterophylla Ell.], and that lovelliana is an distinct southeastern species not verified in Mo., Ky. or Va.