There’s a pile of it in the southeast corner of the yard. It’s growing on the fences and climbing the barn. We knock it back, ruthlessly severing it with the weed eater. And it comes back with a vengeance. It could be mistaken for poison ivy—we have plenty of that around here. But a careful review shows five leaves in a cluster, not the three of poison ivy. It goes by the name of five-leaf ivy or Virginia creeper. And it masquerades as its close cousin, woodbine, covering every surface it can reach.
Virginia creeper is native to North America and can thrive in zones 3 to 9. It will grow in shade, in full sun, or any combination thereof, and it is happy to occupy a range of soil conditions. It makes a good ground cover to stabilize soil on steep banks and prevent erosion.
Vining plants like Virginia creeper use tendrils to wrap around the trellis or fence, or tree that it is climbing on. Virginia creeper carries this idea even farther. It sends out small, branched tendrils that look for something to latch onto. When it finds the fence or the tree, those tendrils suck onto the surface with their sticky, cup-shaped tips. Those tips stick so well that the vine can climb straight up a sheer rock wall, or the side of the barn. They stick so well that if you pull the vine off the wall, it will bring the paint with it. It will also leave a residue that you’d have to remove with a stiff brush if you were going to paint.
Virginia creeper prefers to climb and creep, but if there’s nothing to support it, it will spread out in the grass, growing a foot high or more. It is essentially a woody vine, and it can grow up to 20 feet in a single season, and more than 50 feet over time.
Virginia creeper is in the grape family, and being native to Iowa, it hosts at least three specific insect life cycles. The Virginia creeper sphinx moth (Darapsa Myron) lays its eggs on the undersides of the leaves. When the caterpillars hatch, they are yellow with a brown head and a horn at the end of their abdomens. By the time they mature, they have turned green. They chow down on the leaves until they’re ready to pupate. At that point they drop to the ground and spin a loose cocoon in the leaf litter. They emerge as large moths, with wing spans of up to two and a half inches. Their forewings are painted in light and dark bands of army camouflage in either browns or greens. Their hindwings are brownish orange. The adults are nocturnal and feed on nectar.
The Achemon sphinx moth (Eumorpha achemon) also lays its eggs on Virginia creeper so its voracious caterpillars have a ready supply of food. When adult, this moth is pink with black and brown accents. The third moth that hosts its young on Virginia creeper as well as other grape-family plants is the grapeleaf skeletonizer (Harrisina americana). Hatching from clusters of eggs on Virginia creeper leaves, the caterpillars are yellow with purple and black bands. They eat the soft tissues of the leaves between the major leaf veins, leaving only the leaf’s skeleton behind. When it’s time to pupate, the caterpillars spin a flat white silken cocoon. As adults, they are smaller moths with blackish and metallic blue markings. Japanese beetles have the same skeletonizer feeding process. Virginia creeper can withstand its native feeders, but an infestation of Japanese beetles can cause severe damage to the plant.
In addition to these specialized moths, both larvae and adults of a plethora of other species eat the foliage and woody vines. Long-horn beetles, grape flea beetles, light-loving grapevine beetles, Japanese beetles, the woodbine vein gall midge, a plant bug, an aphid, the Virginia creeper leafhopper, treehopper, seed-eating larvae of the woodbine beetle, and the woodbine seed wasp all love Virginia creeper. Bees and other pollinators will also visit in season.
Flowers bloom in June and July appearing as yellow-green spikes. In the fall, blue berries ripen on red stems to feed the birds and squirrels. The berries contain oxalic acid which, although not specifically poisonous, can irritate your stomach and kidneys if you eat them. The sap also contains oxalate crystals that can irritate your skin. Deer, rabbits, mice, chipmunks and skunks will eat the leaves. In the fall, the leaves of the Virginia creeper turn a bright red to contrast with the blue berries.
Although the Virginia creeper wants to take over the fence and the barn, we’ll try to keep it under some semblance of control while allowing it to serve as a banquet for its many residents.
Photo in the Public Domain from Wikimedia.org Alt text: Dark green leaf of Virginia Creeper. Also called Five Leaf Ivy, the hand-shaped leaves are made up from 5 smaller, sawtooth-edged leaflets attached to a common petiole.