The Devil In The Details Of Invasive Vine

 By Kendra Bobowick

Devil’s Tearthumb is new to town and has begun creeping through backyards and gardens. Resident and Conservation Commission member Marj Cramer said, “It sounds scary because it grows so quickly.”

Polygonum perfoliatum, also called Mile-A-Minute vine because of its rapid growth, belongs to the Polygonaceae or Smartweed family. Regardless of its name, the annual weed with elongated and branched stems can reach lengths of more than 20 feet. The triangular leaves are roughly the size of a thumb and the stem contains barbs.

“It grows anywhere,” Ms Cramer said. An invasive species with what Ms Cramer refers to as opportunistic habits, she said, “It likes to smother and strangles out other plants. It grows faster than native species and crowds them out.” In fact, the vine climbs over and through other trees and shrubs. One resident indicated to conservation official Rob Sibley that it was growing on the roadside along Huntingtown Road. Mr Sibley raised the subject during a recent Conservation Commission meeting.

Mr Sibley and George Benson, along with a volunteer crew spent several hours Tuesday morning, July 17, removing the invasive weed from two Huntingtown Road locations. Other reports that Mile-A-Minute vine had appeared at private residences in Newtown have proven false, so far, said Mr Sibley. “We have gotten two or three dozen false calls. But I would rather check out false calls than have them turn out to be positive reports,” he said.

The Tuesday morning harvest yielded several 13-gallon bags of the prickly vine, enough to fill the back of a small pickup truck. Mr Benson said that the vines would remain in the bags for a few days, until it could be ascertained that the weed and any seeds were dead. The dead vines will then be deposited in a land fill, where Mr Sibley said they will not pose a threat.

“We should see a recession of the plant in the next year, if we have gotten all of the identified plants,” Mr Sibley said.

The annual weed spreads by seed, as Ms Cramer has learned, and the seeds are either sown where the plant grows or distributed by birds. She stressed that residents who see the weed need to “get to it before it goes to seed.” The plant begins to seed in early August.

Luckily, the species is not deep rooted and is easily pulled from the ground. “It’s whispy and shallow rooted,” she said. She speculates about how it suddenly arrived in Newtown.

“Originally it’s Asian and who knows how it got here,” Ms Cramer said. “It could have been accidental or someone thought it was pretty and brought it back.” Her concern is that the plant will seed and “pop up” again in the spring. “We have to get to it.” She warns residents to be aware of the vine and offers several emails and phone number to report it. Contact the Newtown Conservation office at 426-4350, or email elizabethcorrigan@yahoo.com, knelson151@sbcglobal.net, or donna.ellis@uconn.edu.

The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group can also be reached at 1-860-486-6448. Mr Sibley and a working group representative could not be reached in time for publication.