[Herbalist] invasive climbing ivy

[Kathleen H. Keeler]

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I'm not from your area.  Your good description rules out many things.  Since it
has tendrils we can quickly eliminate most vines (all the morning glories, for
example) and most groups with only an occassional vine among many herbs, because
tendrils are specializations for climbing.  Groups (plant families) my books say
have tendrils are the grape family (Vitaceae), the greenbriar family (Smilaceae)
and the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae, includes gourds). You probably wouldn't
call the cucumber or gourd fruits berries tho.  Peas and their relatives have
tendrils but don't tend to be woody perennials in temperate climates.  Passion
vines have tendrils but not rather bigger fruits, and I don't know any woody
weedy ones in areas that get frost.

Hunting through weedy plant lists for Pennsylvania I came up with Ampelopsis
brevipedunculata.  Here's the best picture I found:
http://www.invasive.org/browse/weedimg.cfm?sub=3007
called porcelain-vine or Amur peppervine.

What else can you tell us to eliminate things it clearly isn't?
Agnes

robert leonard wrote:

> Hi, folks:  I have just managed to kill an incredibly fast growing, woody,
> strong, well rooted ivy with an ivy killer that I purchased at Agway.  I
> tried pulling it up over the last year, but it came back like the plant that
> ate Chicago.  I have had little luck identifying it; I have looked at a lot
> of pictures of invasive ivies online, but no go.  But I will describe it
> with the hope of identification:  (The ones in my back yard are dead, but I
> found some others growing a few blocks away from my house, in Carlisle, PA,
> which is about 18 miles east of Harrisburg, pA)
>
> Green long heart shaped leaves, approximately 5" long, 3" wide.  It is a
> tough, woody vine, and is now (Late July) growing clusters of green berries.
> Has tendrils that are snaky and grow up in the air when they run out of
> something to attach themselves to.  It grows along the ground, has attached
> it self to a wood privacy fence, a concrete block wall, to almost any
> surface.  It attaches itself with a great grip.  It grew into my large,
> unlit metal shed and absolutely thrived in it.  The shed is hot and receives
> no light.  I was surprised late last summer to find it wrapped around
> everything in the shed.  Last February, I took a mattock out next to the
> shed where there were literally dozens of cable like ivy shoots growing
> parallel along the ground, and slipped the mattock underneath the stems and
> with all my strength over the next hour, dragged as much as I could from in
> and along the ground.  I filled 6 huge garbage bags with the vines, but by
> June of this year It began going hog wild again.  It is not kudzu.  Or not
> the kind I've seen a lot of pictures of.  The ivy killer i used did the job
> for now.  It's been about five weeks and I have not seen it spreading
> anywhere else.
>
> If anyone can identify it, please let me know.  Or is there a source online
> with PICTURES?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Bob
>
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