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longmountainmomct

Help Identifying Woodland Vine

Would be very grateful if someone can help me identify this small creeping vine which has appeared at the woods' edge. At first I thought vinca but is it not shiny like vinca. Unfortunately I just missed the flower. Thank you.

Comments (11)

  • dbarron
    9 years ago

    It's hard to tell anything because of the blurriness of the photo, but bunchberry, cornus canadensis springs to mind.

  • longmountainmomct
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you dbarron, I think you're correct.

  • lycopus
    9 years ago

    Bunchberry would have more leaves per whorl. I believe it is Galium circaezans.

  • agkistrodon
    9 years ago

    Hope I'm not hijacking but isn't this the same plant as the one in my pic? It was just ID'd in the NTP forum as Lonicera japonica! I'm very sorry if they are totally different plants...I tend to look at the least important characteristics but can someone confirm it's identity? I do have bedstraw all over the place but this vine looks different...I would never have guessed bedstraw.

    Thank-you!

  • longmountainmomct
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I think it is very different .. but have no idea what yours is.

  • wisconsitom
    9 years ago

    The one adidas posted looks like Vinca minor, or periwinkle. Adidas, does it have blue/purple flowers in early summer?

    The other one posted by LongMountainMom superficially does resemble Cornus canadensis, but that plant has leaves in more of a rosette-like arrangement, although 4-leafers exist also. If it is bunchberry, it would have sported white blossoms and later, red fruits. I'm inclined to agree with Lycopus-one of the Galliums.

    +oM

  • agkistrodon
    9 years ago

    Thanks wisconsitom. I don't know about the flowers because I'm not here when it's flowering...but I'll go with the idea that it's invasive and get rid of it!

  • wisconsitom
    9 years ago

    Yeah, Vinca m. is what I consider a second-tier invasive. That is, should a yard bordering a wooded area have this plant in close proximity, it will move in via creeping, which is, of course, a slow process, so utterly unlike say, garlic mustard, with it's millions of tiny seeds, or buckthorn, with birds pooping out the seeds everywhere and anywhere.
    I do know of spots where Vinca has moved into the woods, but again, this is a very localized situation, not one of widespread significance. I'd only ever remove it if it was somehow directly interfering with something I liked better! Otherwise, no biggie.

    +oM

  • agkistrodon
    9 years ago

    Hmmm that's kind of strange then because we live at a distance from out nearest neighbours and anything coming here generally does so by seed or by being asian bittersweet...anything coming here by creeping would have to creep steadily through pretty dense woods...I don't trust any "invasive" species on this property!

  • wisconsitom
    9 years ago

    May or may not be Vinca m. then. Another superficially similar plant that can occasionally escape from landscapes is Euonymous fortunei. The variety 'Coloratus' may be familiar to you from home and business landscape use. But there too, this stuff doesn't get around with anything like the ease with which truly serious invasives do. May simply be that we've not yet properly identified your pic.

    +oM

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    9 years ago

    I believe adidas' plant is Lonicera japonica as identified on NTP. It isn't Vinca minor imo, although this particular example does have some leaves with a superficial resemblance. The OP of this thread has a very different-looking plant. For a start, neither Vinca nor Lonicera has whorled leaves.

    I don't know what it is and there is no scale which makes it harder. But my first thought was Rubiaceae - something on the lines of a Galium.