As the fall color fades, with only the Japanese maples that featured in the snow still at their peak, a twining vine galloping up a birch tree caught my attention.
With the birch leaves long gone, its fresh green foliage amongst the bare twigs caught my eye but now, as its foliage is starting to turn, it’s even more striking. Having been evenly green all season, many (but not quite all) of the leaves are green on one side and yellow on the other. Sharply divided by the midrib of the leaf, the two colours show up brightly side by side.
I didn’t notice any flowers or fruits on this vine earlier in the season - in fact I didn’t really pay it much attention at all until now – but I wonder if it’s the American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens. This is a vine that grows in this area – although at a slightly lower altitude so its leaves have dropped - and a bird could easily have dropped a seed.
I’ll be keeping a closer watch on it next season.
I didn’t notice any flowers or fruits on this vine earlier in the season - in fact I didn’t really pay it much attention at all until now – but I wonder if it’s the American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens. This is a vine that grows in this area – although at a slightly lower altitude so its leaves have dropped - and a bird could easily have dropped a seed.
I’ll be keeping a closer watch on it next season.
The leaf indeed looks like bittersweet, and I have seen occasional leaves to the half-and-half thing. It is, of course, a plant we know very well down here on Long Island! Pull it out!
Posted by: D Heckert | October 26, 2009 at 02:38 PM
Why would I pull out the native bittersweet? It's running up a tree where it won't do any harm, it's lovely in fruit - I've just been admiring it along the Appalachian trail.
The sometimes invasive Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) - that would be different...
Posted by: Graham Rice | October 26, 2009 at 02:45 PM