Wisteria's dark side

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. I went out to get some super invasive Asian wistaria to talk about on the show recently – I actually had to scramble a bit to get yellow jessamine, but wistaria was blooming every whip stitch and I got it across the street from my house. I’ve finally gotten rid of all of it that was in my yard, but that’s one barn door that’s been open for a long time. It’s damage isn’t just strangling trees – it wraps around their trunk and as the tree grows this very strong vine doesn’t expand – but worse is the way it makes it to the tops of trees and then sends out new growth that spreads across the canopy to other trees, completely obscuring the ground below from sunlight – a dark dead zone.