Calling Lounge botanists (who will probably then detest me). Specialty: vines

[UTUSN]

Last edited Sat May 30, 2015, 03:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Pictures would help but no time for Photobucket right now, plus I've tried a couple of the alternatives to PB that have been suggested here and there were impossibles attached to their use, which I forget now. (Added the Photobucket thing below, late in the thread.)

So, think Tarzan vines but not to the extreme of supporting a dude. This thing has leaves that look like grape leaves for starters. It's a thing with an amazing variety of moving parts, both of itself and of fauna. Talking stems(?) that are green and tender, then groady snake-looking things about an inch in diameter, amazing tendrils neatly wrapped, grotesque tubers some healthy looking and woody/others rotten with white crap (spores?) looking like bird dried shit, clusters of green berries, and combs of lacey tiny pinpoint flowers. It all started from a tuber in the ground, but along the mature stem parts some smaller tubers are disgusting every few feet.

I love nature, really I do...

So there's this chain link fence, the width of a city lot (50 ft?). And this vine started out about halfway down and took off in both directions, main highway along the top of the whole fence, draping itself in a loverly way, festooning, and I duly took notice of its looking lovely (from a distance), plus that it had a privacy fence feature.

So when a friend had not complimented the natural beauty, I took it upon myself to do so, and this "friend" replied, "It's going to take down the fence eventually." Notice, Botanists, that this "friend" is the real villain of this tale, not I. True, I myself is who decided to rip down that vine, but stemming from my quirk of taking action when a stimulus presents itself. Dog, bell, salivate.

Yes, my first qualm was that I might be taking down a bees feeding ground. But this was quickly subsumed by all the disgusting parts: Rotted looking tubers encrusted with bird dried shit and the mature stems looking like dried snake skins.

Really, I love nature.

Then more twinges of qualms at the pretty fauna: Some lady bugs, a couple of different types of caterpillars, and it wasn't till the end that a single honey bee presented itself, but also a yellow jacket. Worse, the bees didn't retaliate, kept on feeding while I pulled the thing down around them, and when nearly nothing was left they went to the trash can to savor the last chance. But there were other beings I cringe at, fruit flies and two small furry black and white striped spiders, one of which I smashed.

Assuming there will be some judgments against my ravaging a natural entity together with its inhabitants, if we can get past that, my question is: What part(s) of this monster-growing thing is going to regenerate itself like I never destroyed it? The white encrustations that might be spores? The original tuber I didn't dig up? The berries?

Corollary question: Is the bird dried shit (spores?) going to grow it in my lungs?!1 Not to mention the fear I might have brought a furry striped spider on my clothes inside the house.

Even if an answer is not received here, I'm sure I'll find out soon enough when it COVERS the house OVERNIGHT!1

*********O.K., late in the Editing, added the Photobucket, here:
[IMG][/IMG]

[In_The_Wind]

1. kudzu ?

[UTUSN]

2. If not, at least as invasive. My leaves were more grape like.

It originally started in the lot next door, all up and down a big tree, and over the top of the tree spreading like an umbrella over the poor tree. I thought kudzu is more in a water/swamp place, no?

On Edit: Wiki says not kudzu:: Doesn't look at all like these parts:

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Kudzu not limited to water/swamp.

Grows in hot dry fields , in cool shady areas, grows anywhere.
Take it from me, living in the kudzu capitol of the world.

Those kudzu flowers smell and taste exactly like grape jelly and in fact kudzu jelly is made from them.

[CottonBear]

5. Wisteria?

http://www.gardenista.com/posts/plant-of-the-week-wisteria

[UTUSN]

6. Nope, that's way too gorgeous!1 n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Smilax?

[UTUSN]

7. Don't think so, vaguely similar but your leaves are glossy and larger. The chain link

is *exactly* the same, though -- haha!1 O.K., went out to the trash and snapped a pic. Will be doing the Photobucket thing, posting in the reply to next post below. Oh, and surprise surprise surprise -- there's now visible a colony of long-legged little spiders that have a big round belly the same color as the vine's berries, green!1 I'm brushing myself off constantly now!1


*********O.K., on Edit, from Photobucket:
[IMG][/IMG]

[CottonBear]

4. Is it evergreen or deciduous?

Are the leaves palmate (5 lobed like a hand), serrated (edges like a knife), heart shaped or fuzzy/hairy?

[UTUSN]

9. Did the Photobucket thing, here:

The whole thing is already wilted, and this one tuber that was at the top of the pile is not representative of some of the other more disgusting ones. I forgot to mention the SMELL, which is rottingly pungent!1

[IMG][/IMG]

[GoCubsGo]

8. Where do you live?

Knowing that might go a long way in identifying this vine, although photos would be quite helpful, as well. Since it has leaves that you say look like grape leaves, it's quite possible that it is one of the wild grape species.

[UTUSN]

10. Undisclosed location, "V" for Vendetta syndrome. Plus, my basic question isn't really identifying it

It's about whether it's going to sprout, like, from the spores, the remnants of twigs, the berries? I think the reproducing method isn't unique to the identification, or no?

As for the wild grape suggestion, this thing has a nasty smell and has nothing like grapes, just the leaf resemblance.

[GoCubsGo]

11. Not necessarily "unique."

But, their ability to reproduce by the various methods, as well as rate of reproduction from each, often varies by species. The success rate of the germination of the fruits varies by species. And, some species can take a whacking a lot easier than others. Sometimes, as is the case with greenbriar (Smilax), you have to dig out the rhizomes in order to get rid of them. Others die off if you crop them down.

I can tell you one thing: It's not going to reproduce from the "spores." Those spores are probably some mold or fungus, and not part of the plant. Only lower plant forms, like fungi, ferns, and molds reproduce using spores. Flowering plants do not.

[UTUSN]

13. Good info on spores. & haha, I knew I would p.o. the botanists. So the options are:

Reproduction of this thing via 1) the berries, 2) what I call the "tubers" (are those rhizomes?), and 3) pollination? Wouldn't pouring gasoline onto the stump of the buried part kill off the come-back? But I take your point that identification is needed to answer the question. All I've got is the picture in the O.P. and posts 7 & 9. The pic on the right hand side shows a new one I pulled from the ground, showing a ROOT only, no "tuber."

Ferns are "lower" plant forms? See, that's why I ask people who know more than I do (which is just about everybody?!1).

[Avalux]

12. I think it may be a cascading hops vine. Dude, you should have made beer!

What do you think? Could explain the smell too.

[UTUSN]

14. Haha, but those berries or whatever they're called are too big, leaves don't look like that, and

don't have yellow flowers or are those yellow leaves? But gmta!1

[Texasgal]

15. It could be Muscadine.

Grows natural all over here in Texas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscadine

On edit: here in texas we call them musket, they stink and I cannot imagine cooking or eating them although just from a google search it looks like people make all kinds of fancy recipes with them. Who knew?

[UTUSN]

17. Hmmm, the leaves look similar, but I can't fathom my weed being anything grape-like

The pics in your Wiki:


What I call the "berries" in my weed are tiny, green, and hard, nothing grape-ish juicy about them. They are about the size of, let's see... of a quarter-inch in diameter. The ones in your pics look about a half-inch or inch in diameter and juicy. But your Wiki mentions pollination as a method.

[MerryBlooms]

16. Google to see if you have a local County Extension

You should be able to take a specimen (bug/plant/etc) in for identification.

Many moons ago, my mother-in-law (rip) volunteered at our CE, she had been through the Master Gardener program and her expertise was organic gardening (she held some of their classes) and native plant identification.

Good luck.

[ms liberty]

18. looks like a Muscatine or scuppernine...

You wouldn't see the grapes yet, it's still too early in the season. Edited to add...the grapes swell into grapes as the season progresses, they don't look like grapes this early. Edited to add again...you will have to make jelly! Muscatine jelly is my favorite, but I'm not real talented in the domestic arts, so I have to get it from others. We have wild grape vines like this all over here in my area of NC. But you have to have a male & female plant near each other to get grapes, IIRC.

[UTUSN]

19. Sorry, but after tearing this thing down from 50 ft of fence, the nasty smell, the spiders

and other bugs, the disgusting rotting tubers and encrusted spore bird crap: I have ZERO desire to consume anything coming from it, and despite my PROFOUND love of nature (haha) all I want is for it not to come back. As for the grape connection, I've lived here 20 yrs with that vine suffocating a tree in the next lot and have never seen anything grape-size on it. The one(s) I took down are stuffed in a disposal for pick-up, which won't be picked up until Thursday next, and I *******CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!1

By the bye, the irony in my signature line, "stewardship of the planet," is not lost on me.