White Bryony is a vigorous vine with major destructive potential to native vegetation, forest communities, vineyards, and farmland. Similar to Kudzu

Kudzu

Kudzu is a plant in the genus Pueraria in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine native to southern Japan and southeast China. Its name comes from the Japanese name for the plant, . It is a weed that climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so...

 in habit, it forms dense mats which shade out the vegetation it grows upon.

Description

An herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

, perennial vine of the cucumber family, white bryony is monoecious but diclinous (separate male and female flowers found on the same plant) with a tuberous yellow root. Greenish-white flowers are 1 cm across. Long curling tendrils, flowers, and fruit all stem from axils of palmately lobed leaves. The fruit is a 1.5 cm berry which blackens as it ripens, and seeds of which are disseminated by birds.

Bryonia alba spreads by seed.

White bryony thrives in full sun. Due to birds depositing seeds where they like to eat and nest, bryony is prevalent in native hawthorn patches and in windbreak, shelterbelt, riparian buffer, and wildlife plantings.

Common names: Kudzu of the Northwest, Devil’s Turnip, English Mandrake.

Distribution

White bryony is native to Europe and Northern Iran. It was first reported in the United States in 1975. It probably arrived as a medicinal plant; used to induce vomiting, the plant and berries are poisonous to people. Forty berries constitutes a lethal dose for adult humans.

Currently identified in only four states (Washington, Idaho

Idaho

Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

, Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, and Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

) this invasive species is declared a Class B noxious weed. This classification indicates that bryony is already abundant in many areas. Containment is the goal in those areas, but it is to be prevented/eradicated in new regions.

Invasive characteristics

This invasive weed grows aggressively; it can produce three vines at a time, which each grow up to 15 cm per day. Since the growth pattern of the vine leads it to climb, it emulates the growth pattern of kudzu, and will also simply grow into a mat when it cannot climb. Once it establishes itself, it will climb other plants and trees as well as fences and buildings. Effectively blocking the sun and even rain from its host, the dense shade of the bryony eventually destroys what it covers. If not the lack of sun, then winter snow or heavy rains weighing down the mat of bryony create too much extra weight leading to breakage of host limbs or even felling of entire host trees.

Dispersal

Birds proved the greatest dispersal mechanism by disseminating seeds. Birds eating the berries deposit seeds beneath other shrubs and fences which provide optimal structures for new Bryony plants to climb.

Control

Control of bryony through tillage is problematic because bryony grows close to the base of the supporting plant and tilling would harm the host plant's roots.

Simply cutting off bryony vines is ineffective because the bryony plant grows back from the root.

Chemical

Broadleaf herbicides such as Roundup can be useful, but care must be taken to pull Bryony away from host plant, and multiple applications are necessary to eventually move herbicide to the root and block production of new shoots.

Manual

The most effective method of eradicating bryony requires vigilance. By scouting for new white bryony plants every year, and cutting/removing new growth immediately and repeatedly throughout the growing season, one can return in the autumn to locate and sever roots of new plants. In order to kill a plant, the roots must be severed 7 to 10 cm below ground surface to remove the crown and prevent re-sprouting.

The dispersed seeds are viable for many years. Manually removing B. alba before seed production is paramount to successful management.

Biological control

There is currently no known biological control for bryony , although it may be used as a food plant by the larvae of Cabbage Moth

Cabbage Moth

Note: the Small White species of butterfly is commonly called a "cabbage moth" in North America.The Cabbage Moth is a common European moth of the family Noctuidae....

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