Country: USA
State/District:
County:
Date (D-M-Y):
7
-
2001
Photographer: E. M. Barrows
Identifier: E. M. Barrows
Collector: not applicable
Location:
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Keywords: A alien invasive plant blue fruit FEvi green fruit information sheet vine
Additional Information:
Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Carl Johann Maximowicz) Trautvetter, Porcelainberry.
Alien from NE Asia.
[Ampelopsis Greek: ampelos, vine; opsis, appearance; bevipedunculata, short peduncled]
FE required name(s): Porcelainberry.
General roles in forests.
ABs are autotrophs that generally live in forests, forest edges, successional areas, and yards.
Many kinds of organisms consume dead and living AB fruits, leaves, roots, and stems.
However, people should remove AB from the WDC Area because of its damaging effects on natural ecosystems.
Specific roles in forests.
AB is an alien, invasive autotroph.
This woody vine can be abundant in some forests, and highly competitive with other organisms (including trees) for sunlight and other resources.
It covers and strangles second-growth plants, including small trees.
It also grows over the canopy of larger trees and can kill them by out-competing with them for light.
AB is a major weed in the WDC Area, and no one should plant it.
This plant out-competes many plants that native organisms consume.
The Barnacle Scale Insect, Black Vine Weevil, and Hemispherical Scale Insect, a leaf-miner (WDC Area, personal observation), several fungus spp., and a Rhabdopterus beetle sp. (Westcott 1973, 490) consume AB foliage and stems.
Many kinds of insects consume ABs nectar including the Honey Bee and Imported Cabbage Butterfly, and potter wasps, sphecid wasps, and yellowjackets (personal observations).
AB is a minor, or major honey plant in the continental U.S., depending on the locality (Pellett 1978).
Its honey is thin and reddish, or amber, and mild in different places.
Human uses:
We earn money growing AB and selling it in nurseries, controlling AB, and selling honey from it.
Some people grow AB as an ornamental vine.
There is a variety with variegated leaves.
Nurseries should not sell AB in any area where it can become invasive, such as the WDC Area; however, they do sell it here.
A weed-control team of the National Capital Parks controls acres of AB with a herbicide.
Alien, invasive organisms have a large impact on the Washington, D.C., Area and on other areas in many parts of the world.
In the WDC Area, hundreds of species have invaded our parks, yards, and other places.
A group of invasive vines including Asiatic Bittersweet, English Ivy, Japanese Honeysuckle, and Porcelainberry cover many other plants and the group through the Area.
These vines can form dense covers over other plants, competing for nutrients and sunlight.
They can kill native plants, including trees.
When they do this, they change ecosystems, by removing plants which many native organisms consume.
numbers of native plants and their associates.
The Asian Tiger Mosquito is a major alien, invasive insects in the WDC Area. This fly quickly breeds in even small bodies of water, such as jars and soda cans that contain rain water.
These mosquitos are great nuisances because they will bite people and other animals throughout both the day and night.
They can also transmit human diseases as discussed in the BDWA “Information Sheet, Asian Tiger Mosquito.”
E.M.B.
Reference
Salmons, S.
1999.
Invasive Non-Native Plant Mitigation Program.
Final Report.
Rock Creek Park Invasive Non-Native Plant Mitigation Program.
Internet file (May 2000).
Please click here to go to this report.
