This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s another one of our tree-climbing vines and one with standout fall foliage, Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).
Virginia Creeper is a member of the Grape family and a common vine throughout South Carolina. It will grow in most any soil and tolerates both full sun and heavy shade. This vine is most easily identified by its leaves, which are separated into five pointed leaflets branching out from a central point. The stem of Virginia creeper is relatively thin with a coarse bark of grayish-brown and occasionally has thick rootlets emerging from it. Virginia Creeper is often confused with Poison-Ivy, especially in winter, but Creeper’s un-hairy stem will let you tell the two apart. Virginia Creeper blooms in late April with clusters of delicate, inconspicuous green flowers that mature into small, deep blue berries. These flowers are well-visited by pollinators and the berries are enjoyed by birds, who then carry its seeds to distant trees and shrubs.
Virginia Creeper can grow either as a groundcover, when there’s nothing around to climb, or more commonly as a vine. One of the more impressive characteristics of Virginia Creeper is its ability to climb. Unlike other vines that climb with wrapping tendrils or burrowing rootlets, Virginia Creeper uses adhesive pads at the tips of its tendrils in addition to their grappling twist. This lets the plant get a solid grip on practically anything, regardless of its texture. Due to this trait, Virginia Creeper is especially good at growing along the sprawling limbs of Live Oaks, the arrow straight trunks of Pines, and also on houses, metal buildings, vehicles, and other slick-sided human structures. Here in the Lowcountry, where fall starts in December and winter is sometimes a suggestion, Virginia Creeper is one of the first plants to change color, and it does so with gusto! In early autumn the leaves of Virginia Creeper turn a pure and vibrant crimson-red. Here on the evergreen Live Oak laden Sea Islands, you can stand in a field or on the edge of the marsh in fall and easily pick out every tree strung with a Virginia Creeper vine as far as the eye can see in any direction!
