Kudzu? It's a great gift for folks you don't particularly like :).

Rebecca

Here is a link that might be useful: Info

Hmmmm, I can't tell if it's Kudzu. I guess I don't think of Kudzu vines as being so darn thick...and where are the leaves?

It may not have leafed out yet. I haven't noticed any around here yet. I will go by a couple of locations today on my errands and check to see if they've leafed out yet.

I remember a patch of it in my old neighborhood that was a great jungle gym for us kids because the vines were so thick. We would make clubhouses inside the twining vines. We would go home green, LOL!

It doesn't sound like Kudzu at all to me. From your description, I'd think it was probably a wild grape. They are extremely common (not invasive, but darn close) around here.

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I didn't even think of the grape vines. I too remember using them as swings. FYI, the Kudzu is just now starting to sprout. Don't stand too close!

Here is a link that might be useful: Dew on the Kudzu

Yes. The first thing I thought when I saw them was, "gee, those look like the kind of thing I could swing on... like Tarzan."

I actually tried to pull one out of a tree and couldn't do it. I actually did swing on it and it gave no signs of "give".

So grape vines? OK. Still, it is a mystery as to how they get up there.

Kelton, you are SO RIGHT!!! How do they get up there? I've heard a few suggestions and have yet to hear an explanation that really seems to cover some of the crazy stuff I've seen grapevines accomplish. They're almost as impressive as crop circles! LOL

Grape vines for sure! We use to cut 'em and swing from them all day when I was a kid.

"Wild Grapes do not "climb" up a tree but grab onto a tree when it is a sapling and then grow with the tree into the canopy for many many years. The big grap vines can likely be the same age as the large trees."

You know, I thought of two scenarios.

1. The one described above. It's a vine that starts while the tree is small. What's interesting about this, is that the vine lives *with* the tree and does not appear to do damage. You'd think a sapling wouldn't make it if it had to drag a vine along with it.

2. The vine initially climbs the tree like English Ivy and, over time, the vine releases it's grip on the lower level while maintaining an attachment at the very top.

bigOrange: Where'd you find that quote?

I've always thought that was pretty much the only way it could happen, Jeff. Cool.

Trees have no way of dragging a vine. A tree, or any plant for that matter, grows only from the tips. A limb that grows from a tree 6' from the ground will still be 6' from the ground after another 30 years. If the vine didn't "climb" it wouldn't be up there unless someone placed it there.

Here's a typical scenario that I have yet to figure out. A large tree with a crown radius of say 30' has a grapevine in it that has a base 50' from the trunk of the tree and is growing at about a 45 degree angle up into the canopy of the tree. If the vine initially grew up the trunk of the tree or up into low hanging branches that then fell off and rotted, it appears that the vine would have had to shrink to be as taut as is sometimes the case. I have heard people say that it grew up through brush that later disappeared. I guess this is possible, but looking at some of these vines, that still doesn't really explain, to my satisfaction, what made the vine grow up into the tree without a lot of twists and turns.

I have the same kind of vines on my property too but it is not a grape vine or kudzu. The outer skin is a smooth green color all the way from the ground to the top of the tree.

Agree with Steve Humphries. I have this vine growing up into a very tall pine tree. It is round, with a smooth green bark(?). The leaves kind of resemble wisteria but that ain't it. It is not a kudzu, grape, or poison ivy vine. It has none of the root type growths that poison ivy has. As far as I can tell, the only thing holding it onto the tree is the fact that is wrapped around it and possibly supported by some of the limbs on the tree. I am going to take pictures of the vine and the leaves and sent to NC State Ag people. Someone up there should be able to identify it.