Protect your trees from Oriental Bittersweet vines

Oriental Bittersweet is an aggressive invasive plant. It both suffocates and strangles trees. To see the effects of uncontrolled Oriental Bittersweet, you have only to take a ride on the Taconic or Sawmill Parkways. You’ll see green ghosts — trees smothered in vines. You’ll also see the bare limbs of trees that have been killed by the vines.

Oriental Bittersweet is very hard to address when it is advanced. It roots; it seeds; it grows very fast. Removing it early from your property is key to limiting its spread. Fall is a very good time to do that. The vines stay green a little longer than most of our native plants and that makes them stand out. Older vines also have a bright yellow and orange berry that is very distinctive.

Small vines can be pulled up with their distinctive orange roots. Older vines should be cut about a foot from the ground, repeatedly, every year, until they get exhausted and give up. When you cut a vine that is going up a tree, there is no need to pull down the top part of it. Once it’s separated from its roots, the top part will die on its own.