Description: This native perennial plant is a woody vine up to 60' long. It usually climbs up trees, shrubs, or fences, but sometimes sprawls across the ground, forming a ground cover up to 1' tall. The stems are initially green and hairless, but eventually they become brown and woody. The alternate leaves are palmately compound, usually consisting of 5 leaflets (rarely 3 or 7). Each compound leaf has a long slender petiole up to 6-8" long. The leaflets are up to 6" long and 2½" across. They are ovate or obovate and coarsely serrated (at least along the upper half of their margins). The upper side of each leaflet is dark green, while the lower side is light green and either glabrous or pubescent. The bottom of each leaflet is often wedge-shaped, while its outer margins may taper abruptly into a short blunt tip, or they may taper gradually into a long pointed tip. Opposite from the leaves, are branched tendrils that often terminate into flattened pads. These pads can cling to tree bark, wooden fences, brick walls, and other rough surfaces. During the fall, the foliage becomes colorful, varying from burgundy to brilliant scarlet.
Occasionally, panicles of yellowish green
flowers are produced. These panicles are usually broader than they are long.
Each flower is about ¼" across, consisting of 5 green petals, 5 stamens,
and a pistil with a stout style. The sepals are insignificant or absent. The
petals are triangular-shaped and curve backward. The stamens have white
filaments with large yellow anthers. On each plant, the flowers may be perfect,
staminate only, pistillate only, or both staminate and pistillate. The blooming
period occurs during early to mid-summer and lasts about 2-3 weeks. Each flower
is replaced by a fleshy berry about 1/3" across that contains 2-3 seeds. Each
berry is initially green, but it becomes blue during the fall. Similarly, the
peduncles and pedicels of the flowers/berries are initially green, but they
eventually become bright orange-red or red during the fall. The root system
consists of a woody taproot.
Cultivation: The preference is partial sun, moist to
slightly dry conditions, and a soil containing loam or clay-loam. Virginia
Creeper also adapts well to gravelly or rocky soil, and it tolerates full sun
or light shade. This woody vine is a robust grower and requires plenty of
room.
Range & Habitat: Virginia
Creeper occurs in every county of Illinois and is quite common (see
Distribution
Map). Habitats include deciduous woodlands, woodland borders, thickets,
gravelly seeps, limestone glades, rocky bluffs, fence rows, and walls of
buildings. It can adapt to disturbed habitats in both rural and urban
areas.
Faunal Associations: The
nectar and pollen of the flowers occasionally attract various bees, including
Leaf-Cutting bees (Megachile spp.). Leaf-Cutting bees occasionally use the
leaflets of Virginia Creeper as construction material for their nests. Various
insects feed on the foliage of Virginia Creeper, including Altica
chalybea (Grape Flea Beetle), Popillia japonica (Japanese Beetle),
Erythroneura tricincta (Three-Banded Leafhopper), and the caterpillars
of various moths (see Moth
Table). Several species of Sphinx moths rely on Virginia Creeper as a host
plant. The berries are eaten by several species of songbirds that inhabit
thickets and woodlands (see Bird Table). The foliage and branches are browsed by the
White-Tailed Deer and the Cottontail Rabbit. The berries are not regarded as
being edible to humans.
Photographic
Location: The berries were photographed along a little-used railroad
in Champaign, Illinois, while the burgundy foliage was photographed near a
partially shaded yard in Urbana, Illinois. Both photographs were taken during
the fall.
Comments: Virginia Creeper
has colorful foliage and berries during the fall. It is more ordinary in
appearance during the summer and its flowers are not very showy. The foliage of
this woody vine can be rather variable in appearance; some vines produce rather
broad leaflets with blunt tips, while others produce more slender leaflets with
long tips. Similarly, the lower surface of the leaflets can be glabrous or
pubescent, depending on the local ecotype and growing conditions. The palmate
compound leaves (consisting of 5 leaflets) are quite distinctive, which makes
Virginia Creeper easy to identify in the field. However, there is one
exception: A closely related species, Parthenocissus inserta (Woodbine),
also has palmate compound leaves and is very similar in appearance. This latter
species is confined primarily to northern Illinois. Woodbine differs from
Virginia Creeper primarily by its tendrils, which lack flattened pads that can
cling to rough surfaces. Instead, the tendrils of Woodbine twine about narrow
objects in the conventional manner. Sometimes Virginia Creeper is confused with
Toxicodendron radicans (Poison Ivy, Poison Oak), but this latter species
has trifoliate compound leaves and dull white berries.