There is a group of plants that is often neglected… vines. These plants can fulfill several functions in a landscape design as well as provide ecological function. There are a number of native vines that can be used in place of invasive or potentially invasive vine species. Vines need to be used wisely because even native vines can be aggressive and hard to manage.

Design Functions and Use

Most often I think of vines as climbing plants. With the right kind of support (trellis, fence, posts, wire, etc.) they can form a cascade of blooms and greenery. Around a gate or window, they can create a nice portal into the landscape. Vines can soften the appearance of structures or screen areas. Vines can also be an effective ground cover (even when that is not the intention!).

In addition to offering design options, vines provide ecological functions. They are host plants to many lepidoptera species. Their fruits are food sources for birds and mammals as well.

Think through your choices about vines! Vines can spread aggressively from a single root ball, branches that form new plants their own roots, and seed. Get the right plant in the right place for your design goals or you will have an ongoing plant management problem! We learned this the hard way with virgin’s bower, a native clematis. It is lovely and worked well on the trellis/fence by the entrance gate to the gardens. However, its vines started rooting on the ground and self-seeding to the point it was taking over the whole area. We are working to remove it in all but one location where it can safely be a ground cover as well as a climber.

Invasive and Potentially Invasive Vines

Some non-native vines used in landscaping have become invasive or potentially so. By definition, native plants are not invasive even though some may be very aggressive. According to the Ohio Invasive Plants Council, invasive and potentially invasive vines include:

Invasive

• Asian bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
• Kudzu (Pueraria lobata)
• Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)… a vine as compared to several invasive “bush” honeysuckles
• Air potato (Dioscorea polystachya)
• Morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea)
• Wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei)

Potentially Invasive

• Mile-a-minute vine (Persicaria perfoliata)
• Periwinkle (Vinca minor)
• Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)
• Sweet autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora)

Under Assessment

• English ivy (Hedera helix)

Native Vines

In Native Plants of the Midwest: A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 500 Species for the Garden, Alan Branhagen describes a number of vines native to the Midwest. Of those, these seem to be native in Ohio according to the Biota of North America Program (BONAP) website:

• Racoon grape (Ampelopsis cordata)
• Groundnut (Apios americana)
• Trumpetvine (Campis radicans)
• American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens)
• Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana)
• Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa)
• Wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata)
• Potato vine (Ipomoea pandurate)
• Wooly pipevine (Isotrema tomentosum)
• Rock or grape honeysuckle (Lonicera reticulata)
• Coral or trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)
• Canada moonseed (Menispermum canadense)
• Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
• Passion vine (Passiflora incarnate)
• Hispid greenbriar (Smilax hispida)
• Carrionvine (Smilax lasioneuron)
• Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)
• Wild grape (Vitis spp.)
• Kentucky wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)

Vines in Catchfly Commons

We have eight native vines in our landscape: coral honeysuckle, passion vine, Virginia creeper, pipe vine, virgin’s bower, carrion vine, wild grape, and (of course) poison ivy.

The two showiest vines are coral honeysuckle and passion vine.

Coral honeysuckle blooms are long reddish tubes that hummingbirds love. They are in full bloom now and this seems like a particularly good year. We have them in three areas—two on trellises and one just transplanted to climb the fence by the entrance gate (replacing virgins bower). It is a well-behaved vine but it can get large and needs strong support.

Passion vine has a very striking bloom that looks tropical and exotic. We often see bumble bees and carpenter bees visiting them. Passion vine fruit look like small limes. It has not been a large vine here, but it can spread by seed so some management is needed.

We have Virginia creeper in a couple of areas. In the back corner it serves as a ground cover. There we keep it from climbing other plants and fences. In another spot, we let it grow up on a swing set to integrate that structure into the landscape. It is a host plant for the pandora sphinx moth and the Virginia creeper sphinx moth, both of which I really want to find. It is also a host plant for the eight-spotted forester moth, which we do see. Some people confuse Virginia creeper with poison ivy, but they are quite different. Virginia creeper has five leaflets while poison ivy has three.

Pipevine is a new addition and we got it to attract the pipevine swallowtail butterfly. It can be a very big vine, so we placed it in a spot where conditions will slow its growth rate and where other plants are not at risk. The plant we have was a transplant gift so I am waiting for it to bloom to get a species identification and photos.

As noted above, virgin’s bower is a lovely native clematis that we like but it became too unwieldy for the location we planted it.

The carrion vine we have is a volunteer that in the past I have tried to remove, but it keeps coming back in the same spot under our red oak. It may have a tougher root than I realized! This vine is actually upright carrionflower (Smilax ecirrhata), which is a different species than listed above. The description given in Native Plants of the Midwest makes it sound like an interesting plant, so we are going to leave it and see what happens.

We try to remove wild grape and poison ivy but they persist either because of vigorous roots or because of reseeding by birds that eat their fruits. Wild grape and poison ivy have relatively good ecological functions but they are problematic in the landscape. Wild grapes can overrun bushes and trees. Poison ivy is just not good to have around people!!!

• Facebook
• X
• Mail

---

References

(1) Branhagen, Alan. 2016. Native Plants of the Midwest : A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 500 Species for the Garden. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. (see chapter “Vines,” pp. 230-49)

Photos by Randy Litchfield unless otherwise noted
© Randy Litchfield, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)