Virginia Creeper

What is Virginia creeper?

Virginia creeper is a native woody vine in the grape family that grows across the eastern half of North America. It climbs tree trunks, utility poles, walls and wooden siding, and also sprawls across shady beds. Quick Virginia creeper identification is mostly about counting leaflets: it usually has five fanning from one point, while poison ivy has three. The two often grow side by side, and Iowa State notes that is a big reason many people treat Virginia creeper as a weed.

On its own it is less of a menace than its reputation. It feeds songbirds, squirrels, raccoons and other wildlife, supports pollinators, and puts on bright red fall color. The problems are practical: it grows fast, needs regular trimming, glues itself to painted wood and shingles, and works into gutters, shutters and wiring. Its berries are toxic to people, and NC State gives it a high flammability rating. The usual goal is to keep it off the house and out of beds and shrubs, not to clear it from the woods.

Virginia Creeper identification: what to look for

Count the leaflets and look at how the vine holds on. Five-part leaves and tiny adhesive pads at the tips of the tendrils confirm it. In fall, red leaves and dark berries make it stand out; in winter you can still trace the tendrils on bark and walls.

• Leaves: Palmately compound, alternate on the stem, usually with five leaflets that all start from the same point at the end of a long leaf stalk. Leaflets are oval to oblong with saw-toothed edges and hairless surfaces, up to about 6 inches long.
• Climbing structures: Branched tendrils that end in small, cup-like adhesive pads. The pads stick to surfaces rather than boring into them, but they are very hard to scrape off. Aerial roots, bright orange-brown during fast growth, also form along the stems.
• Stems: Stems turn woody with age, with gray-brown bark on mature vines. They cling with tendrils and aerial roots rather than by twining.
• Flowers: Small greenish-white flowers in clusters from late spring into summer, tucked under the foliage where few people notice them.
• Berries: Dark blue to black berries up to 3/8 inch across, ripening in mid to late summer and hanging on after the leaves drop.
• Seasonal color: Purplish new growth in spring, dull green in summer, and purple to crimson red in fall.

Where it grows in the United States

Virginia creeper is native to eastern North America, from eastern Canada through the eastern United States and south into Mexico, and well into the Midwest, including Iowa. NC State lists it for USDA zones 3 through 10, a huge range of climates. It has also been planted as an ornamental groundcover and wall cover, with named cultivars sold, so it turns up on buildings and in older landscapes.

The vine is not picky. It grows in woods, woodland edges, slopes and banks, and on fences and poles, in sun or full shade and in clay, loam or sand, and it tolerates drought, wet soil, compaction, salt, pollution and heat. In yards it often arrives as seedlings from berries dropped by birds, then climbs the nearest trunk, fence or wall and creeps through shaded beds.

Virginia Creeper look-alikes

A few plants get mixed up with it:

• Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans): The comparison that matters most. Poison ivy has three leaflets per leaf, while Virginia creeper usually has five fanning from one point. Poison ivy causes an allergic rash; Virginia creeper does not, though its sap can bother sensitive skin.
• Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata): A close Asian cousin that climbs with the same sticky-padded tendrils. Its mature leaves are simple, glossy and three-lobed rather than divided into five leaflets, though young shoots can carry three-leaflet leaves that resemble poison ivy.

How to get rid of Virginia creeper

Pulling, digging and mowing: Small seedlings pull out easily, especially after a soaking rain or deep watering; use a trowel or weeding tool to get the roots. On larger vines, cut the stems near the base first. The growth above the cut dies quickly, and on walls the dead pads loosen with time, which makes removal safer for paint and siding than ripping off a live vine. For vines in trees, cutting at the base and leaving the top to die avoids tearing bark. Repeated cutting alone rarely kills the root unless you never let it regrow leaves, which can take several seasons. Where you want to keep it, prune it back regularly so it stays off gutters, shutters, windows and wiring. Wear gloves and long sleeves if your skin is sensitive to the sap.

Cultural control matters most, because the right conditions keep it from coming back.

• Keep it off painted wood and shingle siding; the adhesive pads are hard to remove and can damage the finish.
• Trim it away from gutters, shutters and wiring before it gets established.
• In wildfire-prone areas, keep it out of the defensible space around the house because of its high flammability rating.
• Check beds and fence lines in spring for seedlings from bird-dropped berries and pull them while small.
• Where it causes no trouble, such as wooded edges, consider leaving it for birds and pollinators.

Herbicides: For large, established vines tangled in shrubs or trees, Iowa State recommends the cut-stump method: cut the vine near the base, brush away the sawdust, and immediately treat the whole cut surface with glyphosate or triclopyr, keeping it from running off. This can be done any time during the growing season, but late summer and fall are slightly more effective. Treat resprouts again with another cut-stump treatment or a foliar spray, and expect to repeat. Spray foliage only where the vine is not growing on plants you want to keep, because a systemic herbicide affects any green tissue it touches; work on calm, cool days and shield nearby plants with cardboard or plastic. Use only a product labeled for your site, and follow the label, which is the law. If you hire someone to spray, make sure they hold your state’s pesticide applicator license; the rules for each state are in our pesticide applicator license guide.

Keeping it from coming back

New plants often start from berries dropped by birds, so the simplest prevention is to walk beds, fence lines and the base of trees each spring and pull seedlings before they root in. Do not let the vine get a start on the house; once the pads grip siding or walls, removal takes much more work.

If you like the look, let it cover something you do not mind it covering, such as a fence or a stone wall, and keep it pruned so it does not cross onto shutters, gutters or roofs. Teach children not to eat the berries.

Questions we get about Virginia creeper

Similar weeds

Poison IvyToxicodendron radicansCommon GreenbrierSmilax rotundifoliaTrumpet CreeperCampsis radicans