1. Plants stout (main stem ca. 8–25 mm thick), erect, with leaves at least 6 cm broad and blades truncate to shallowly cordate at base.
2. Leaf blades cordate or subcordate, usually (at least the larger ones) over 15 cm long, with acute to short-acuminate apex; leaf underside with multicellular hairs along the veins.
F. sachalinensis
2. Leaf blades truncate at the base (often with a small lobe or angled shoulder at each outer angle plus a slight expansion of the blade at summit of the petiole, resulting in a shallowly 3-lobed aspect), mostly less than 15 cm long, abruptly short-acuminate; leaf undersides with the veins merely scabrous-roughened with very short unicellular hairs.
F. japonica
1. Plants with slender stems (up to 3 mm), becoming twining at least in part (young shoots ± erect), with leaves less than 6 (very rarely as much as 9) cm broad and blades deeply cordate with acute to rounded lobes.
3. Nodes mostly with a ring of reflexed bristles; achene smooth and glossy; styles distinctly separate, divergent; outer tepals ± obscurely keeled.
F. cilinodis
3. Nodes glabrous; achene granular or outer tepals definitely keeled or winged; styles virtually absent, the stigmas nearly sessile.
4. Achene with sides granular or cellular in appearance; outer tepals ± papillose or roughened, narrowly keeled (wing less than 0.5 (–0.6) mm broad); fruiting perianth less than 5 (–6) mm long.
F. convolvulus
4. Achene smooth and glossy; outer tepals smooth, ± conspicuously winged (wing over 0.5 mm broad, usually 1 mm); fruiting perianth (6–) 7–10 (–11) mm long (including ± prolonged winged summit of pedicel).
F. scandens