At first you look at it and think, oh wow isn’t that pretty. Then you start realizing that it has spread everywhere.
Deceptively pretty. Wisteria is taking over in my neck of North Carolina. It seems to be everywhere. While wisteria doesn’t grow as fast as kudzu, it’s still aggressive. Kudzu can grow up to a foot a day during it’s growing season, while wisteria only grows up to 15 feet a year.
Twenty years ago, back in Texas I had wisteria growing over a pergola in my back yard (and I didn’t even get the benefit of the blooms.) The vine reached out and grabbed everything within 8-10 feet. First it would grow up until the wind would bend it enough to grab the photinias, 10 feet away. The different parts of the vine would twist together strengthening the separate willowy parts. If we didn’t keep it trimmed back it would have taken over not just my back yard and all of my trees, but my neighbors as well. So I’m well aware of what wisteria can do.
Last year we didn’t notice the wisteria in the wild, maybe there where one or two spots along some of the roads as we did our daily errands, but this year, you can’t miss it. Its aggressiveness is taking over large sections.
From the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants
Introduced to the United States from China in the 1800’s for use as an ornamental plant, wisteria has escaped cultivation and can be found across the eastern seaboard and west to Texas. Individual wisteria plants can survive for more than 50 years. It reproduces by rooting at each node, via stolons, by seed, and will produce new shoots if trimmed/cut back.
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By climbing into the canopy of trees or plants, it can shade them out, impairing those plants from effectively growing. Over time, wisteria will climb and twine around other plants, eventually shading and girdling native plants.
And according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources wisteria is an ecological threat.
- Invasive in similar climate zones; Mid-Atlantic states and southeast from Tennessee to South Carolina and north to New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
- Wisteria vines can climb over existing vegetation and topple large trees, creating canopy gaps that further favor infestations.
- Infestations have been reported in all successional forest phases and occupy diverse forest types.
So while we look and admire the pretty floral display, remember, that vine putting on that display is choking out the surrounding vegetation.
I’m actually surprised that wisteria is still sold in garden centers considering that it’s considered an invasive species and an ecological threat. You may be able to control the wisteria in your yard by trimming, but you can’t control where those seeds from the floral display end up.