GHI Woodlands Committee - Winter Vine ID

Saturday Feb 19 at 10am 

Learn to recognize many of the common vines in our woods, such as the valuable native grape vines but also wisteria, bittersweet, wintercreeper, etc.   

Meet behind the Greenbelt Elementary School

66 Ridge Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770

Head to the right of the building, pass the bamboo, meet near the rain garden.

Winter is not a bad time to observe the characteristics of vines and ID them. For example winter is a good time to work on English ivy but can we recognize poison ivy or virgin creeper growing on the same tree?
We will repeat the circuit again later in the spring so we can see the same vines in a different season.

One hour max.  

We will walk a small loop (less than a mile) in the woods and on the school grounds.  At the end an optional extra loop can be added to see old grape vines behind 8 Laurel Hill.

The focus is on Identification - not invasive removal - so no tool needed, but a knife or clippers may be useful if you want to try differentiating grapes (whose young growth's pith is brown) from porcelain berry (pith is white - like porcelain).  Another characteristic of native grape vines is that the mature dark brown vines shred and exfoliate.

Come look at our vines!