Would anyone know what this very invasive vine is. It appeared in my gardens last year ( I've lived and gardened here for 9 years now) and I thought I had managed to eradicate it by pulling it out till the first frost. I've included a picture which was taken in my Lupin patch this spring...it eventually completely strangled everything and created a thick mat, while I was away for two weeks this summer. A few days ago I saw small purple flowers for the first time and pulled everything out immediately. It twists itself around anything it can find as well as itself and creates ropes and mats and has a very similar habit as the dog strangling vine but I know that this is something different. It has a chickpea size root which creates small little spherical ball along the roots...most of the time the steam breaks at the ground level when its pulled out. It also creates an extensive network like a mesh just above ground before creeping up the plants and eventually strangling them. It can grow a few feet a day. I've also seen it along the road for the first time this year. Any ideas?
Hello It's me again, replying to myself in hopes that this thread will be revived and answered. It seems to be one of the very few post that hasn't been identified. As an update, I would ad that I went about pulling all that I could of this vines before it flowered...by then it had flattened and matted a number of flower beds to the point that all that could be seen was this vine. Within days I could see new sprouts coming out of the ground...I pulled them out till the first frost. Thank you for your attention.
Might be an Evolvulus of some sort. Do you have a pic of the flowers? From your first pic, buds are visible but seeing the open flower would go a long way to IDing the pest. My guess is it's coming back from fragments of root that you can't really remove from your soil, no matter how much of it you pull up. I had this problem with a creeping bindweed (not that one though) when I lived in Alberta, and I eventually came to the point where scraping off all of my topsoil and replacing it with fresh was the best solution.
Thank you for replying Iorax. Unfortunately I don't have any images of the flowers specifically. I will do better this season and get a close-up. I checked out 'Evolvulus' and it doesn't seem to fit at first glance...this creature is all about leaves and strangling with a mission to flatten and destroy anything in its way. As I mentioned very much the same behavior as the dog strangling vine but a smaller version. The flower on this vine was very small and insignificant...actually not much more open than what is on the posted image,... lavender/light purple and somewhat like the flower of a bean, that all I can say for now. Thanks again
If it's like the flower on a bean, check out Clitoria (compare flowers, the one in my photos is most likely not the species you have) and the other stranglers in the Fabaceae - the flower shape gives you a lot of clues about where to start looking. Equally, if it's a leguminous strangler you're probably going to have to use pesticide or do a whole soil change in order to get rid of it. (Lorax)
"Small purple flowers" puts me in mind of Solanaceae. I don't believe there are any Clitoria that would be hardy perennials in Quebec...?
Mystery solved by a municipal worker here in Chelsea...first sighting! It's an American Hog peanut and unfortunately this is it's most northern range, so it is native and not considered invasive HA! Thank you everyone for your efforts.
