The UnNature Trail

Five-leaved Akebia

Five-leaved Akebia (Akebia quinata) is an invasive vine. It's tough and hard to pull up successfully.

Golden Bamboo

Incredibly nasty stuff although the invasion front is relatively slow.

Wineberry Plants Spreading

Wineberry is trying to spread in this area. The plants are very aggressive, spreading both by seed and by sprouting from the tips of the long, arching canes where they contact the ground.

Wineberry

Wineberry plants have many bristles like these. Work gloves are imperative for pulling them up.

Invasive Wisteria and English Ivy

Notice the writhing appearance of the multiple vines of Wisteria twisting around each other as they climb into the trees overhead.

More Lesser Celandine

So pretty and yet so bad in our area due to its rampant spreading through floodplains and other areas.

Japanese Honeysuckle and Wisteria Vines

This Leyland Cypress is festooned with huge Japanese Honeysuckle vines (approaching an inch in diameter, which is very large in my experience anyway) and at least one Wisteria vine, showing a straight line angling to lower right. Both are exotic invasive plants in the mid-Atlantic area.

Lesser Celandine and Japanese Knotweed

Superficially, Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) -- the carpet of yellow flowers -- looks like a pretty wildflower, but it is a very serious non-native plant invader in Arlington, taking over low areas and crowding out native wildflowers like Spring Beauty. It leafs out and blooms very early, and then by May or June it has vanished until the next year. The plants produce many tiny bulbs that can move downstream to start new infestations, and make it almost impossible to eliminate by pulling since bulbs are left behind. Also seen in the photo is a young annual shoot of Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum or Fallopia japonica), another serious invader of wet areas. It seems often to be spread by contaminated fill dirt and digging equipment, and can often be found where heavy equipment has done work. Japanese Knotweed creates dense patches where nothing else grows. Just to make things worse, this infestation is in a rare "Magnolia Bog," endangering the unique natural plant community of the bog.

More English Ivy Carpet

Almost all the green in this winter picture is an unnatural carpet of English Ivy. However, most of the ivy that had been on some of the trees has been killed. Green in winter might seem nice, but one of the effects of this ivy carpet is to keep native wildflowers from coming up and blooming in the spring. Our native wildlife can find less food. And, unfortunately, our non-native rats like ivy!

A Thick Carpet of English Ivy

English Ivy (Hedera helix) covering just about everything else.

English Ivy Growing in Its Adult, Shrub-like Form

A Jungle of Multiflora Rose

Japanese Stiltgrass

This is Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), also sometimes called Nepalese Browntop. Notice the distinctive reflective stripe.

The "Wings" that Give Winged Euonymus Its Name

Burning Bush

Euonymus alatus is called Burning Bush or Winged Euonymus. This shows its brilliant fall color. Unfortunately, it spreads like wildfire in our woodlands and takes over the understory if given the chance.