Madeira Vine

Aerial tubers on Madeira Vine

Madeira Vine is by far the hardest to permanently remove.
 
Madeira Vine poses a severe environmental risk because of the damage it can do to trees. Its distinguishing feature is the aerial tubers that grow every few centimetres along its stem. Similar in appearance to ginger roots, these tubers can get very large and very heavy. If the vine is left to grow, the weight of the tubers will break branches off the host tree or even cause it to fall over completely. Not only that, but every single tuber has the potential to grow into a new vine.

The tubers of Madeira Vine are easy to recognise. However, the leaves can be a little more challenging to identify. Madeira leaves are quite round but do taper to a point at the end. They are light green in colour and have a texture and appearance reminiscent of a succulent.

​It is particularly important to be able to recognise the leaves because young plants do not start growing tubers until they are a few metres long. Ideally, the vine should be removed before it starts growing tubers.

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Young Madeira Vine

Removal:
The best method of removal depends on the size of the vine and the extent of the infestation. For vines that are up trees, a tarp should be spread under the tree before any attempt is made to remove the vine. The tarp will hopefully catch most of the tubers as they fall. If the vine can be reached by hand, then it should be carefully pulled down. If not, pull it out by the roots and leave the tarp there until all the tubers have dropped.
 
For vines that are on the ground, removal by hand is the most effective approach. An infested area should first be comprehensively sprayed with Fluropyxr. This kills off all species including the Madeira. Once the tubers start to reshoot, the stems/leaves should be followed to their base where the tuber is located. The tubers absolutely must be dug out or they will just regrow. To make the task even more challenging, Madeira vine has runners under the soil which also produce tubers. The runners must be carefully removed and all attempts made to find as many tubers as possible. Repeat the spraying and manual removal process regularly.
 
Any tubers collected MUST be bagged and put in the rubbish. Madeira tubers remain viable for years and do not decompose easily. If they are pulled out and left, they will regrow. Most importantly, have patience and be diligent! An infested site should be checked fortnightly or more often if the conditions are favourable. Don’t expect to eradicate it quickly.

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​Turkey Rhubarb (Acetosa sagittata)

​Turkey rhubarb is a dense vine that is extremely hard to permanently remove. Unlike many other vines, turkey rhubarb is not a very good climber. It will spread vigorously over the ground but rarely makes it more than a metre or two up a tree. Even so, left unchecked, it will completely smother any native plants on the ground and will break off the lower branches of more established trees.
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Its arrowhead shape leaves and deep red stems make it relatively easy identify. In spring and summer it gets masses of small, white flowers that look very much like miniature Begonia flowers. As the flowers ripen into seeds, they steadily turn deep pink or red.

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Turkey Rhubarb leaves

urkey rhubarb is hard to permanently remove because of its many underground tubers. Similar in appearance to radishes except brown, turkey rhubarb tubers extend throughout the area covered by the vine. A single square metre of infestation may have dozens of individual tubers.

The picture here is of an extremely large Turkey Rhubarb tuber. They normally don't get this big. Between 1 and 7cm long is much more normal.

Removal:

• Pull out the vines and bag up any seeds.
• Attempt to dig out the tubers.
• If there are too many tubers, use glyphosate whenever the tubers begin to reshoot. We have found that spraying regrowth every few weeks throughout the growing season can kill the vast majority of tubers in as little as one year.

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Moth Vine (Araujia sericifera)

​Moth vine is a true vine in that it wraps itself around trees and climbs. Left uncontrolled, it can eventually either strangle a tree or cover its canopy with so many of its own leaves that the tree will suffer from lack of light.
 
It is identified principally by the milky, white sap that comes out of its leaves and stems when broken. It leaves are light green and slightly triangular in shape. The leaves are in pairs and grow opposite each other on the stem. The stem itself is very light brown and slightly rough-barked.

Moth vine flowers from late spring to late summer. It has small, white, four-petaled flowers. The flowers mature into large green pods that closely resemble chokos. They open in late autumn releasing thousands of furry seeds that are easily carried by the wind.

Removal:

• Pull out the vine at the roots and leave it in tree if is too big to pull down. Bag all seed pods!
• If there are too many moth vine seedlings in a single area to remove by hand, spot spray with metsulfuron-methyl + organosilicone penetrant.

Cape ivy (Delairea odorata)

Cape Ivy mostly inhabits cooler forested areas such as along gullies and creek beds. It is largely an annual vine, growing vigorously in spring before dying back in late summer. Its bright, green leaves look quite round except for the five to seven points that line the edges. The leaves grow off the stems individually rather than in pairs like many other vines. The vines themselves are a similar colour to the leaves and have distinct nodal sections. Both the leaves and stems lack rigidity and are very easy to break.
 
Cape Ivy flowers in late winter with clusters of small, yellow flowers appearing all over the vine. The flowers do not have obvious petals but look more like miniature versions of the pollen centre of a daisy. As with scotch thistles, Cape Ivy seeds are fluffy which allows them to be transported by the wind. While the vine often seems to die back after flowering, it is not completely dead and will regrow once the weather warms up.
 
Removal:

• Hand removal is usually the easiest. The vines break easily and do not seem to regrow once they have been pulled out.
• Dicamba/MCPA may be needed in areas with heavy infestation.

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English Ivy

English Ivy is a perenial vines that smothers trees by latching into their bark and climbing. Both the weight and competition for sunlight at the canopy contribute to the host tree's demise.

Control is ideally by cutting the base of the ivy, digging out the roots and pulling as much off the tree as possible. Secondary control of vines on the ground usually involves repeated spraying with triclopyr/picloram.

English ivy is very persistent and has a fairly durable seed bank so needs regular monitorring.

Honeysuckle, Jasmine & Potato Vine

Japanese Honeysuckle has a brown stem with ovaluate leaves that are usually a light green colour. The flowers yellow to orange and are fairly shaped. They form in small clusters on the vine. Control is by manual removal and spraying with metsulfuron.

Jasmine is well known and is best controlled by manual removal followed by repetitive spraying with fluropyxr.

Potato vine looks very similar to jasmine except that it has white flowers with yellow centres just like potatos. Control is the same as for jasmine - manual removal followed by repeated use of fluropyxr.

Periwinkle

Periwinkle is a ground cover weed that remains very popular in gardens. It grows vigourously from small nodules located every few centimetres along the stem. It easily smothers all small native plants and seedlings as well as sucks the nutrients from the soil. Manual control is possible with a lot of time and patience but it is generally more effective to use repeated fluropyxr treatments with metsulfuron as a slightly less effective alternative.

Asparagus species

Asparagus Fern

Asparagus Fern, Asparagus, and even Climbing Asparagus are largely ground dwelling vines. As with other ground based vines, they smother all native species and take nutrients. The asparagus species are particularly hard to control because they have extensive rhizomes/tubers that will easily germinate a new plant if the parent plant is killed. Asparagus fern also regularly produces thousands of small, red seeds that linger in the ground for long periods of time.

Manual control is rarely practical so the recommend treatment is herbicides. NSW Weedwise provides several recommendations and experience shows us that a rotation through these options does improve long term success.

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Feral Passionfruits (Passiflora caerulea) & (Passiflora subpeltata)

Young Caerulea plants

The are two main kinds of feral passionfruit in the Shoalhaven, caerulea and subpeltata.
 
Caerulea is a vigorous grower with an impressive root system. It is typically used as root stock for other domestic species of passionfruit. As a young plant, caerulea has bright-green, ovulate shaped leaves with a slightly wrinkled appearance. In more mature vines, the leaves become three-lobed with each lobe radiating out from the node. They also turn a much darker green and grow to around 10cm long.
 
Subpeltata is a much less aggressive vine but can still cover quite a large area. It has smaller, light green leaves that are quite flat and look slightly powdery. Subpeltata leaves are also three-lobed and the split between each lobe extends halfway to the base of the leaf.

The flowers of both species are, large, colourful and frilly. They have numerous, long outer petals which open up flat to expose the more delicate inner petals and large stamen. The only real difference between the two is that caerulea flowers are largely blue whereas subpeltata flowers are completely white.
 
The fruits of caerulea are large, and ripen to a bright orange colour. On the other hand, the fruits of subpeltata are smaller, grey-green and have a powdery texture. As far as we know, the fruits of both species are poisonous.
 
Removal:
Manual removal is easiest. Cut the stem off and leave the vine where it is. Dig out the root ball with a mattock if it can’t be pulled by hand.

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Caerulea left, Subpeltata right

Trad (Wandering Jew) (Tradescantia fluminensis)

​Trad is a fast growing, segmented ground-covering vine. It has fairly broad, 2-3cm long lanceolate leaves aligned alternately on a thin, green stem. Combined, the leaves and stem look vaguely like a succulent. Another distinguishing feature is the funnel shaped new leaves at the end of each stem. Left uncontrolled, Trad will completely cover the ground with a thick, green mat of vines that will prevent anything else coming through.
 
Trad flowers are about 0.5-1cm across and have three triangular petals. Both the petals and the centre of the flower are white although yellow pollen heads can be seen on short spires in the middle of the flower.
 
Removal:

• Hand pull small patches or use a hoe. The segmentation means that roots set at every node which makes manual removal only possible for the smallest infestations.
• For large quantities of Trad, spray with Fluropyxr. It is very tough and will take weeks to die fully. Secondary spraying is essential

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Blackberry (various species)

Blackberry grows in nearly all conditions but is particularly prevalent inland from the coast. It is a perennial weeds that loses most of its leaves in winter before growing new ones and flowering in spring. 

Manually digging out the tuber of each blackberry vine is by far the most effective form of control to kill the plant and get immediate site access for regeneration purposes. However, herbicide control is usually more efficient in large infestations. Triclopyr/Picloram/Amminopyralid is the most effective followed by metsulfuron.

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