By Christine Stewart

 Virginia creeper is a woody vine found in the United States, Canada, Cuba and the Bahamas. A vine is a form of plant, yet vines use other plants as a means of support while growing vertically. Parthenocissus quinquefolia is the vine’s scientific name; it comes from the Greek word parthenos that means virgin, cissus means ivy, the Latin word quinque means five and folia means leaves. Woodbine, five finger ivy, five finger creeper, five-leaf ivy, and American ivy are some of the Virginia Creeper’s nicknames.

Virginia creeper is a high climbing vine that adheres to objects by numerous adhesive disks located at the ends of its tendrils. It can grow 30 to 50 feet. It grows compound leaves with five leaflets in a circular pattern. The leaflets are oval with the blades 2-6 inches long and 1-3 inches wide with a green surface. Japanese beetles chew on the vine’s foliage. The vine is a member of the grape family; it blooms in late summer. The Virginia creeper’s flowers are in small clusters; yellowish-green, open in July a few at a time, and are well liked by bees. They produce bluish-black berries in clusters of 1-5 about 6 mm in diameter.

Virginia creeper prefers a sunny location and may climb over objects, up tree trunks or over walls or trail on the ground. Some people like to use it for ornament because of its glossy leaflets, which become yellow to red purple in the fall.

Written fall 2000, as a service learning project for Dr. Gary Coté's Biology 102 class at Radford University. Copyright Pathways for Radford.