The other day a Monarch butterfly stopped to rest on the wild grape vine which covers the chain link fence which surrounds my in-ground pool. I think that was the first time I’ve ever seen a butterfly alight on the grapevine, so it got me thinking. Do wild grapes support pollinators?
Wild Grapes support pollinators
Yes! According to my research, wild grape flowers are frequented by native bees and wasps, most notably the small sweat bees. They also are a source of food for songbirds, gamebirds and small and large mammals. I also found they were dioecious, which means they require insect cross-pollination, requiring both male and female plants to be able to produce fruit.
However, grape vines are invasive
Native wild grape species grow in a variety of habitats from dry, sandy soils to rich, moist soils throughout the United States. Using their tendrils for support, they like to climb and intertwine in upright structures, including trees and shrubs. Although they can co-habitat with most trees and shrubs, left uncontrolled, they can deform a tree by shading out new branch growth and breaking branches from the added weight and from girdling. They can be absolutely deadly, if left to overtake a tree canopy. They block out light, reducing the photosynthesis and weakening the tree. They can form a platform in the tree canopy which holds the weight of snow and ice, causing a weakened tree to break or even topple.
Native wild grapes have small almost green flowers, barely visible to the human eye because they lie hidden under fast-growing leaves. In late summer to early fall their dark purplish-black berries appear and are immediately picked off by the birds and mammals. They propagate from seed or sucker from previously cut vine stumps, but they must have full sunlight. They do not thrive in the shade. The seeds spread by birds or mammals remain viable for many years, so given the right conditions, they can appear almost anywhere. Left without control, the vines can reach up to 50 feet (15 meters) and have many vines radiating out from one root ball.
Controlling grape vines
There are several ways to control wild grape vines. I don’t recommend simply cutting them down, because they will grow back more vigorously than before. If you are averse to using herbicide, you can smother the stem end after cutting it from the rest of the vine. Or, you can dig the root out of the ground after having cut the stem at the end. Or you can cut the stem just above the ground and safely and carefully paint the cut end with herbicide. Any of these methods will work for vines growing up into trees and shrubs.
According to the Cooperative Extension, “the easiest way to handle them is to cut them down at the base and IMMEDIATELY treat the freshly cut stump with an herbicide with glyphosate or triclopyr. Do not let the herbicide get on the trunks of your trees (or anything but the vine).” (Cooperative Extension)
When using herbicide, I prefer to cut the vines in the fall and safely and carefully paint the the cut end of the stems. I’ve found for most woody-type stem plants, cutting in fall when they’re starting to go dormant and painting just the cut stem with herbicide is the most effective. Although tempting, cutting and painting during the summer when you first spy the plant, typically results in regrowth and suckering the following year, if not the same year.
So, all in all, I feel we should think of grapes and grape vines as friend in our landscape because they support wildlife. But just like with some friends we all have, we need to take great care with how we let that friendship affect us.
When there were big bird flocks, and their droppings floated in the miasmas, the curling grape vines reached two hundred feet. They were three to four feet at the base. The straights were six to seven feet at the base and were never more than one hundred feet high, but extended across streams, etc two or three hundred feet. Most were used up in the charcoal business before the civil war. The skins or bark had special uses. Many were moss covered except along trails. Aesop’s fox was high in the sky tops and was worried about falling as the grapes were out of reach. Passenger pigeons nested in the grapevines in the spring and returned later in the year for ripe grapes. There are supposed to be grapevine woods left in old mining stripland.
Eighteen inches at base is the most I have seen. Their logs were crooked and were called corduroy logs. I found a civil war photograph of a corduroy bridge, once. Union engineers built them across swampy land.
The grapevine woods was the second largest ecosystem east of the Mississippi. The largest, not contiguous, was dying and decayed trees.
Again you surprised me with a new word, Cindy. “Miamas” means stench. I also learned there is also a theory called Miamas. “In miasma theory, diseases were caused by the presence in the air of a miasma, a poisonous vapour in which were suspended particles of decaying matter that was characterised by its foul smell. The theory originated in the Middle Ages and endured for several centuries. That a killer disease like malaria is so named – from the Italian mala ‘bad’ and aria ‘air’ – is evidence of its suspected miasmic origins.” (Science Museum)
Added note: The last passenger pigeon, once the most abundant bird in North America, died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden.
My wild grape supports a wide variety of bees. I am sure that there are not enough pollinating plants around my neighborhood. I do cot back my w grape as it is sharing my arbor with my Wisteria and my morning glory.
Ok, T — Donna
There are some grape vines in the woods in our metro parks and they are scary, especially at night. In the fairy tale, Hansel tripped on a low vines, Gretel stopped to help him and the witch got them both. She was gathering faggots or small vines for her oven.
Hansel and Gretel — an appropriate tale for Friday the 13th, and especially with this month’s full moon.
All those fairy tales reflected some kind of reality, generally grim. I am sending a book of Dutch fairy tales as a gift; will check out their version before I send it.
A Halloween walk in those kind of woods would be out of sight. The last time I was there at this metro park, the vines were maybe fifty feet high and nine or 10 inches at the base, more on one side of the trail than the other. They were twirling, curving in all sorts of ways; one had to climb to go off trail.
You can get water from cut grapevines that is clean to drink.
Some of the bush honeysuckle trails have grapevines growing in the middle, that were there first.
Thanks for thinking of me, Cindy. I had to look that last statement up, and I was surprised to find using grape vines as a water source is a survival technique. I think I’ll need to write a post about that. Thanks for the new info!
Interesting, Cindy.
Does this mean Round-up won’t work for painting the vines? Thanks!
Hi! Toni — I suspect it will since I’m aware of others who have used Round-Up in the past.
Thanks, Donna!
You’re welcome, Toni.
Hi Donna, thank you for the article. Is there a way to control wild grapes by growing in a container, or would it just not do well? Otherwise, are there other kinds of grapes that are more well-behaved that pollinators and birds would like equally? Thanks a lot for your advice.
Janny Lai — I have never hearad of growing wild grapes in the containener. But, there’s always something on the web. Wild Grapes in the Container “Their leaves are glossy, not matte, and smaller. They grow higher and need a little less chill in winter. Their fruit clusters are typically small and loose.”
Use a white or tan pot. Black or dark colored plastic pots heat up in the sun and can cause your grapevine’s roots to get too hot. Try to arrange the container so the vine is in the sun — like the vines grow on the trees. Your container should also be about 15 gallons or more. Put stones or styrofoam in the bottom of your container for drainage, then add composted soil. You will need is a good trellis. USDA Zones 3-10.
Thanks a lot for your advice, Donna. Much appreciated.
You’re welcome, Janny Lai — Donna
Native grapes are technically nit “invasive,” which is used for non-native plants that do or potentially do cause harm to the environment, the economy or human health. Natives may be “aggressive”.
Kat — that’s right! — Donna