This evil cucumber

There are some very tenacious woody vines that I’m always pulling off structures, but this one was an herbacious vine that was bending my young willows to the ground.  Each section of vine sent out hairy bristled branchlets which latched onto any nearby supporting structure with tendrils, so it was covering a lot of territory in a hurry.   I thought, “These leaves really look like cucumber leaves; what is this? Some kind of mutant?” Well, no…

Taking a leaf with me, I looked up the shape and various vine descriptions and found this:

Sicyos angulatus  also known as the Bur Cucumber

Cucurbitacaea (Gourd family)

The habitat is lowlands, floodplains, moist disturbed areas, banks and ditches.√ (Found near the stream ditch, a floodprone area in the sun)

Racemes of whitish/green flowers, male and female flowers on same plant√

Bloom period-late summer to early fall√ ( Noted plant with fruit and blooms first week of September)

Fruit is a knobby cluster, a bur, covered with hairy spines √

Attracts long tongued bees, i.e. honeybees and bumblebees plus certain wasps√

Seeds are inedible,  are spread through sticking–like a bur.√ (Picking them off my clothes)

The annual burcucumber vine is considered a pest weed in certain areas and agricultural literature has many references on attempts to eradicate it from fields. It’s on the invasives list in Delaware.

I decided I needed to free my willows (and yard) from the weight of this vine and pulled it off. The vine sticks to itself; if you’ve ever wadded up Mile-a-Minute vine, you’ll know what I refer to.  On the way back to the house, I was feeling itchy: my sweatshirt was covered with spines and they were all over my pants legs working through the fabric. My hands felt like I’d been handling Angel Hair (the spun glass).  Those darn fruit burs were probably the culprit. I spent some time extricating the needles from the backs of my fingers. This is a plant for gloves and maybe tighter weaves on clothing; otherwise–use a long handled tool!