Prevalent Invasive

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Prevalent Invasive Vines Larry R. Nelson Clemson
University Clemson, South Carolina
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Oriental or Asian Bittersweet Celastrus
orbiculatus

• Found mainly along forest edges.
• Somewhat shade-tolerant.
• Colonizes by prolific vine growth and seedlings.
• Seeds dispersed by birds, animals and humans.

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Oriental or Asian Bittersweet Introduced 1736
Celastrus orbiculatus
Plant Deciduous, twining and climbing woody
vine to 60 ft long or high in tree crowns,
forming thicket and arbor infestations.
Resembles American bittersweet (Celastrus
scandens). Woody vines in winter resemble grape
vines (Vitis spp.).
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Oriental or Asian Bittersweet

• Leaves
• Alternate, variable shaped.
• Small and long-tapering
• tipped when young.
• Larger and round tipped
• when mature.
• 1-5 in. long and wide, base
• tapering into petiole.
• petioles 0.5-1 in. long
• margins finely blunt toothed.
• dark green becoming yellow in
• late-summer to fall, deciduous.

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Oriental or Asian Bittersweet

• Fruit and Seeds
• Aug-Jan.
• Green spherical capsules,
• about 0.5 in. in diameter.
• Tipped with a persistent pistil,
• becoming yellow-orange to tan,
• splitting and folding upward to
• reveal 3 fleshy scarlet sections
• in winter, each section contains
• 2 white seeds.

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Oriental or Asian Bittersweet

• Stem
• Woody vine 4 in. diameter.
• Twining and arbor forming.
• Many alternate branches growing at angles
• becoming straight.
• Olive drab with many raised whitish-corky
• dots (lenticels) becoming tan to gray.
• Branch scars of fruit clusters semicircular
• with a tiny corky shelf projection.

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Climbing Yams

• Fast growing
• Semi-shade tolerant
• Can cover small trees within a year.
• Spread by underground tubers and aerial yams.
• Chinese NC, Air and Water Yam FL, GA, AL

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Climbing Yams
Introduced 1800s Air Yam Dioscorea
bulbifera, Water Yam D. alata, Chinese Yam
D. oppositifolia
Plant Herbaceous, high-climbing vines to 65 ft
long, infestations covering shrubs and trees
(native yam species will not), twining stems with
long-petioled, heart-shaped leaves and dangling
potato-like tubers (bulbils).
Synonym air potato
Air Yam
Chinese Yam
Air Yam
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Climbing Yams

• Leaves Alternate (air yam) or combination
  alternate and opposite (Chinese and water yam).
• Petioled, thin and hairless, long
• heart-shaped to triangular, 4-8 in.
• long and 2-6 in. wide.
• Basal lobes broadly rounded (air
• yam) or often angled (Chinese and
• water yam).
• Margins smooth.
• Veins parallel and converging at base.
• Elongated tips.
• Dark green with slightly-indented
• curved veins above and lighter green
• beneath.

Air Yam
Chinese Yam
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Climbing Yams

• Fruit and seeds
• Jun-Sep (and year-round).
• Capsules, winged seeds,
• questionable viability, while aerial
• tubers (bulbils) most notable,
• miniature potatoes, 1-4 in leaf axils.
• Surfaces smooth (air and Chinese
• yam) to rough (water yam),
• spherical (air and Chinese yam) to
• oblong (water yam).
• Air yam to 5 in. diameter, Chinese
• yam to 1 in. diameter, and water
• yam to 1 in. diameter and 4 in.
• long.

Water Yam
Chinese Yam
Air Yam
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Winter Creeper Euonymus fortunei Introduced
1907

• Forms dense ground
• cover and can climb
• and overtop trees.
• Shade tolerant
• Spreads by trailing and
• climbing vines that root
• at nodes.
• Seeds dispersed by
• birds, animals and
• water.

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Winter Creeper
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Winter Creeper

• Plant
• Evergreen, woody vine climbing to
• 40-70 ft high.
• Can form dense ground cover or a
• shrub to 3 ft height.
• Resembles blueberry (Vaccinium spp), the larger
  leaved species, possibly rusty blackhaw (Viburnum
  rufidulum)

Synonyms Climbing euonymus, gaity
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Winter Creeper

• Leaves
• Opposite, evergreen, broadly
• oval (egg shaped).
• Moderately thick, smooth glossy,
• hairless, 1-2.5 in. long and 1-2 in.
• wide.
• Blades dark green,whitish med-
• and lateral veins (or variegated
• green-white above and light
• green beneath).
• Margins finely crenate,somewhat
• turned under to wavy, bases
• tapering to petiole.
• Petioles short.

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Winter Creeper

• Fruit and seeds
• Sep-Nov.
• Dangling pairs (or single) of
• pinkish to red capsules, 0.2-0.4
• in. long, splitting open to reveal
• a fleshy orange to red covered
• seed.

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Winter Creeper

• Stem
• Twigs stout, lime green, and
• hairless becoming
• increasingly dusted and
• streaked with light gray-
• reddish corky bark.
• Opposite buds brown and
• sharp
• Protruding aerial roots
• underneath or along surfaces.
• Branches opposite, scars
• jutting and containing a light
• semicircle.
• Leaf scars thin upturned

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English Ivy Hedera helix Introduced
colonial times

• Thrives in moist, open forests.
• Shade tolerant, but can adapt
• to high light levels.
• Reservoir for bacterial leaf
• scorch of oaks, elm and
• maples.
• Spreads by bird-dispersed
• seeds and colonizes by
• trailing and climbing vines that
• root at the internodes.
• Toxic to humans when eaten,
• dermatitis on sensitive individuals.

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English Ivy
Plant Evergreen woody climbing vine to 90 feet
by clinging aerial roots and trailing to form
dense ground cover. Resembles grape, Vitis spp.
Vitis spp.
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English Ivy

• Leaves
• Alternate, varing with age
• juvenile plants - 3 to 5 pointed lobes
• mature plants broadly lanceolate
• and unlobed
• 4 in. long, 3-5 in. wide.
• Thick, wavy smooth and hairless.
• Dark green with whitish veins, pale
• green underneath.
• Petioles 6 in. long, pale green often
• reddish tinged.

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English Ivy

• Fruit and seeds
• Oct - May.
• Terminal clusters of spherical drupes
• 0.2-0.3 in.
• Pale green late summer ripening to
• dark blue to purplish late winter to
• spring.

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English Ivy

• Stem
• Slender woody vine growing up
• to 10 in. diameter.
• Vines pale green (sometimes
• reddish tinged) becoming gray-
• brown segmented by encircling
• and raised leaf scars.
• Bark light gray to brown, bumpy
• and gnarly.
• Aerial rootlets exude gluelike
• substance.

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English Ivy

• Flowers
• Jun-Oct.
• Occur on mature upright branches with
• mature leaves.
• Terminal hairy-stemmed umbel clusters
• of small greenish-yellow flowers.

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Japanese Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica
Introduced 1800s

• Our most prevalent
• invasive species.
• Widely planted.
• Occurs in most
• forest types.
• Shade tolerant.

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Japanese Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica
Introduced 1800s

• Forms dense exclusive
• thickets in full sunlight.

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Japanese Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica
Introduced 1800s
Plant Semi-evergreen to evergreen woody vine,
high climbing and trailing to 80 ft long,
branching and often forming arbors throughout
forest canopies and/or ground cover under
canopies. Resembles yellow jessamine (Gelsemium
sempervirens), which has thinner leaves and
hairless stems and native honeysuckles (Lonicera
spp).
yellow jessamine
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Japanese Honeysuckle

• Leaves
• Opposite
• Semi-evergreen or evergreen.
• Broadly ovate to elliptic to oblong,
• 2-3 in. long and 1-2 wide.
• Base rounded, tips blunt-pointed
• to rounded.
• Margins entire but often lobed in
• early spring.
• Smooth to rough hairy both
• surfaces.

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Japanese Honeysuckle

• Flowers
• Apr. to Aug.
• Axillary pairs, each 0.8 to 1.2 in.long, on
• a bracted stalk.
• White (or pink) and pale yellow.
• Fragrant.
• Thin tubular flaring into five lobes in two
• lips (upper lip four-lobed and lower lip.
• single-lobed), with the longest lobes
• roughly equal to the tube.
• Five stamens and one pistil, all
• projecting outward and becoming curved.

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Japanese Honeysuckle

• Fruit and seeds
• Aug-Mar.
• Berry black, glossy, nearly
• spherical, 0.1 in. diameter.
• Fruit stem 0.4-1.2 in. long
• with persistent sepals.
• Seeds 2-3.

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Japanese Honeysuckle

• Stem
• Slender woody vine
• becoming stout to 2 in.
• diameter.
• Cross-section rounded.
• Opposite branched, brown and
• hairy becoming tan barked.
• Having fissures and sloughing
• with age.
• Rooting at low nodes.

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Kudzu
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Kudzu Pueraria montana var lobata

• Occurs in old infestations along rights-of-way
  and stream banks.
• Forms dense mats over ground, debris, shrubs and
  trees.
• Colonizes by vines rooting at nodes and seed
  dispersal by wind, animals and water.
• Difficult to control.

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Kudzu
Darryl Jewett, USDA Forest Service, SRS,Athens, GA
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Kudzu Pueraria montana var lobata
Introduced 1900s

• Plant
• Twining, trailing, and mat-forming
• woody vine, 35-100 ft long with rope-
• like vines cover trees and forming
• dense patches.
• Large semi-woody tuberous roots
• reaching depths of 3-16 ft.

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Kudzu

• Leaves
• Alternate, pinnately compound
• with 3 leaflets, leaflets 3-7 in. long and
• 3-8 in. wide, usually slightly to very
• lobed (or unlobed in shade).
• Middle leaflet symmetric, 2-lobed side
• leaflets 1-lobed.
• Blades finely hairy above and silvery
• hairy beneath.
• Tips pointed.
• Margins fine, golden hairy.
• Leafstalks 6-12 in. long, hairy with
• swollen bases.

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Kudzu

• Fruit and Seeds
• Sep-Jan.
• Dry, flattened legume pod
• (bulging above the seeds),1-3 in.
• long and 0.3-0.5 in. wide.
• 1 to 10 seeds per pod.
• Green ripening to tan with stiff
• golden brown hairs, splitting on 1-2
• sides to release a few ovoid seeds.

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Kudzu

• Flowers
• Jun-Sep.
• Axillary slender clusters (racemes),
• 2-12 in. long.
• Pea-type flowers with petals
• lavender to wine-colored.
• Flowers in pairs (or 3s) from raised
• nodes spiraling up the stalk, opening
• from the base to top.

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Vincas, Periwinkles

• Found on old home-site plantings and scattered in
  open to dense canopied forests.
• Forms dense mats and extensive infestations even
  under forest canopies.
• Vines root at nodes.

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Vincas, Periwinkles
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Vincas, Periwinkles Vinca minor, V. major
Introduced 1700s

• Plant
• Evergreen vines.
• Opposite leaved.
• Somewhat woody, trailing or scrambling
• to 3 ft long and upright to 1 ft tall.
• Violet single flowers
• Forms mats and extensive infestations
• Resembles partridge berry (Mitchella repens),
  and may resemble yellow jassamine (Gelsemium
  sempervirens).

partridge berry
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Vincas, Periwinkles

• Leaves
• Opposite, evergreen to semi-evergreen
• Common periwinkle is narrow elliptic,
• 1-2 in. long and 0.5-1 in. wide,
• petioles 0.1 in. long.
• Bigleaf periwinkle is heart-shaped to
• somewhat triangular to elliptic, 2-3 in.
• long and 1-2 in. wide.
• Both with margins slightly rolled under.
• Blades dark green with whitish lateral
• and midveins above and lighter green
• with whitish midveins beneath.
• Petioles 0.2-0.4 in. long.

Vinca minor Common periwinkle
Vinca major Bigleaf periwinkle
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Vincas, Periwinkles

• Flowers Apr-May
• (sporadically May-Sep)
• Axillary, usually solitary, violet to
• blue lavender (to white).
• Petals 5, pinwheel-like, radiating
• at right-angles.
• Common periwinkle flowers are 1
• in. wide and tube 0.3-0.5 in. long.
• Bigleaf periwinkle flowers are
• 1.5-2 in. wide and tube 0.5-1 in. long.
• Sepals 5, long-lanceolate, about
• 0.5 in. long, hairy margined.

Vinca minor Common periwinkle
Vinca major Bigleaf periwinkle
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Chinese Japanese Wisterias Wisteria
sinensis W. floribunda
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Chinese Japanese Wisterias Wisteria
sinensis W. floribunda

• Traditional southern porch vine.
• Forms dense growth and overtops trees.
• Colonizes by vines rooting at internodes.
• Seeds are water dispersed
• along riparian areas.

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Chinese Japanese Wisterias Wisteria
sinensis W. floribunda

• Forms dense
• infestations which
• exclude other species
• and limit other vegetation
• management options.

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Chinese Japanese Wisterias Introduced
1800s
Plants High-climbing, twining, or trailing
woody vines (or cultured to be shrubs) to 70 ft
long, deciduous. Chinese and Japanese wisteria
difficult to distinguish due to possible hybrids.
Resembles American wisteria (Wisteria
frutescens) having shorter flowers and leaves,
and trumpetcreeper (Campsis radicans) having
toothed margins .
American wisteria
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Chinese Japanese Wisterias

• Leaves
• Deciduous, alternate, odd
• pinnately compound, 4-16 in. long.
• Leaflets 7-13 (Chinese) or 13-
• 19 (Japanese)
• Oval to elliptic with tapering
• pointed tips, 2-3 in. long and
• 1- 2 in. wide.
• Petiole short.
• Margins entire, hairless to short
• hairy at maturity but densely
• silky hairy when young.
• Stalks with swollen bases.

trumpetcreeper
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Chinese Japanese Wisterias

• Flowers
• Mar-May.
• Fragrant, dangling and showy,
• stalked clusters (racemes).
• appearing when leaves emerge.
• Blooming at about the same time
• (Chinese) or gradually from base
• (Japanese).
• 4-20 in. long and 3-4 in. wide.
• Pea-type, corolla lavender to violet
• (to pink to white).

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Chinese Japanese Wisterias

• Fruit and seeds
• Jul-Nov.
• Flattened legume pod, irregularly
• oblong to oblanceolate, velvety hairy.
• 3-6 in. long and 0.8-1.2 in. wide.
• Greenish-brown to golden.
• Splits on 2 sides releasing 1-8 flat
• round brown seeds, 0.5-1 in.
• diameter. Too large to be carried far
• by animals but floats down streams
• and rivers to become established.