Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

Virginia Creeper

Virginia Creeper starts turning color in August. Together with our sumacs, this is the first marker for the onset of autumn in our area.

Virginia Creeper is a small, well-mannered vine that is usually found carpeting the forest floor in our area. Individual stems of this wide-ranging, semi-woody plant can reach fifty feet in length and it occasionally ascends trees in its search for light. Unlike Wild Grape (Vitis) this species doesn't weight down a tree with its sheer mass and break off limbs. Nor does it shade out its supporting host the way grapes do. The numerous small blue-black fruits it produces ripen slowly - a few at a time - thereby providing a long lasting source of food to birds who rely - in part - on this food source to get them through the winter.

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