It looks like some kind of grape to me. Can't say more than that.

It's a grapevine. There are a few species native to OK. I love them.

Well it is growing and choking everything that it's wrapped around so we are having to go tree by tree and bush by bush to cut it out. Will it make your hands itch? After touching it my palms started itching, after washing my hands it stopped, didn't know if it was that causing it.

Perhaps you have a sensitivity to grape sap. But it should be relatively harmless.Glad the itching stopped!

George
Tahlequah, OK

Native grapes can be really invasive and hard to get rid of. The kind that grow here on our property are no good for fresh eating, though some people here in our county say they are great for making wine.

If yours are well-established, pruning them back will only encourage new growth. To get rid of them, you'll have to cut them back repeatedly, dig them, and treat the remaining stumps with a herbicide. They will indeed grow all over everything if allowed to and will bury other existing vegetation underneath their rampantly-growing foliage. In our woodland, we have grapevines as big around as my wrist and those vines climb to the upper canopy of the trees searching for light.

Dawn

That looks like a grapevine to me. The new place we just moved into has an apparently very old grapevine on the back fence & as Dawn said, the bases of these old vines are as big around as my wrist & have climbed all the way up one tree, starting to connect & climb onto the neighboring tree, as well as growing about 150 ft down the whole back fence, up a different side fence & all over the neighbor's poor crepe myrtle. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to cut it out of one of these trees. Hope you can find a solution!

Thanks everyone, its going to be a tedious task because of the years of neglect the back yard had seen, it is just masses of these vines through, around, and covering everything. Uuuggghhh.

MelDawn.....I would start stocking up on brush killer. In the last few years in my beds I am starting to find various nuisance vines hiding all over. I am sure the birds are trying to help me garden! Some years it seems like I spend the whole season killing saplings, but this year it is going to be vines I think.

Use a paint brush, and apply within ten minutes of cutting... the stem quits taking the brush killer in really fast.
Best case scenario, you have some in an old plastic container with a lid, and have that with you while cutting.

Moni

Great thank you Moni, does it have an official name or just look for any herbicide?

You might find it under the ortho brand, usually it has Brush killer on the front label.

I think Busy1 is referring to Ortho Max, and it probably says something like Tough Brush and Poison Ivy Killer or Brush and Ivy Killer or something. It also is sold as a stump killer. There isn't much it won't kill, so be careful to spray it on carefully. If you need to put it on plants that are surrounded by good plants you want to keep, buy some cheap foam paint brushes (I usually find them in the craft section at Wal-Mart where there's several in various sizes in a bag for a couple of bucks) and paint it onto the plants that you want to kill, but don't let it drip onto plants you don't want to kill. Read the label and follow all the directions carefully. The brush killers are pretty powerful. If there is a stronger brush killer than Ortho Max, which is 8% triclopyr, I don't know what it is. Triclopyr can be found in many different products from different manufacturers, but Ortho Max is one that can be found easily in stores. Ferti-lome has a triclopyr product but I usually see it only in farm stores or feed stores.

Be very careful if you spray. Herbicides can drift through the air and their mist can kill or damage plants on your property or elsewhere that you never meant to kill.

We have had major garden damage a couple of times when a nearby rancher had his property sprayed with a herbicide that drifted through the air and settled on our plants and caused them great harm. Even if you spray on a pretty calm day, the esters in some of today's products vaporize and can travel pretty far, making them more damaging to other plants than they were in the past.

Dawn