Holmes recognizes 16 species of Mikania in Mexico. The treatment includes a taxonomic history, discussion of morphological characters, key, full synonymies with typifications, descriptions, specimen citations (and an index to numbered collections), figures of a leaf, flower, capitulum, and capitulescence of each species, and distribution maps of the more abundant species. Two species (M. neei and M. tehuacanensis) are endemic, while two others (M. globosa and M. pterocaula) are known only from Guatemala and southern Mexico. One (M. gonzalezii) attains its greatest abundance in Mexico, but also occurs in Central America and Colombia. The remaining species are of widespread wet tropical American distribution.