Native Perennial Vine
(Deciduous)
Light Requirement: Sun, Part Shade, Shade
Soil Moisture: Moist
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Moist, well-drained soils. Sandy, Sandy Loam, Medium Loam, Clay Loam, Clay, Rocky, Limestone-based Caliche type
Conditions Comments: Tolerates most soils and climatic conditions.
Bloom Color: White, Green
Bloom Time: May, Jun
Size Notes: Stems climbing or scrambling, up to about 40 feet long.
Leaf: Green
Autumn Foliage: yes
Fruit: Black, Blue (toxic to humans)
Ornamental notes: Twines on fences & other plants, Screens, Climbs walls & columns, Arbor, Ground cover. Unlike some climbing vines, it adheres via adhesive discs (holdfasts) rather than penetrating rootlets, so it won't damage buildings, though its clinging holdfasts can mar the appearance of walls after vines have been removed.
Attracts: Fruit-birds, through the winter, inc. chickadees, nuthatches, mockingbirds, catbirds, finches, flycatchers, tanagers, swallows, vireos, warblers, woodpeckers, and thrushes.
Pollonator benefits: Larval Host for Abbott's Sphinx Moth (Sphecodina abbottii), Pandora Sphinx Moth (Eumorpha pandorus), Virginia Creeper Sphinx Moth (Darapsa myron), White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata);
Deer Resistant: Moderate
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Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) - A woody, dedicuous vine, Virginia Creeper can be high-climbing or trailing, 3-40 ft.; the structure on which it climbs is the limiting factor. Virginia Creeper climbs by means of tendrils with discs that fasten onto bark or rock. Its leaves, with 5 leaflets, occasionally 3 or 7, radiating from the tip of the petiole, coarsely toothed, with a pointed tip, and tapered to the base, up to 6 inches long. Leaves provide early fall color, turning brilliant mauve, red and purple. Inconspicuous flowers small, greenish, in clusters, appearing in spring. Fruit bluish, about 1/4 inch in diameter.
Virginia Creeper can be used as a climbing vine or ground cover, its leaves carpeting any surface in luxuriant green before turning brilliant colors in the fall. Its tendrils end in adhesive-like tips, giving this vine the ability to cement itself to walls and therefore need no support. The presence of adhesive tips instead of penetrating rootlets also means it doesn't damage buildings the way some vines do. It is one of the earliest vines to color in the fall. A vigorous grower, it tolerates most soils and climatic conditions.
In years past, children learned a rhyme to help distinguish Virginia Creeper from the somewhat similar-looking and highly toxic Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans): "Leaves of three, let it be; Leaves of five, let it thrive." Poison Ivy leaflets are normally in groups of three, while those of Virginia Creeper are in groups of five. The berries of Virginia Creeper can be harmful if ingested, however, and the rest of the plant contains raphides, which irritate the skin of some people.
Source: www.wildflower.org