When we see this plant, we are highly alarmed. It has a horror
quality to it. The way it grows, what it looks like, and what it
does. Maybe in its native Asian habitat it is an elegant and
necessary addition to a well-rounded ecosystem, but here it is a
dangerous emerging invasive. We will describe it for you and
tell you a story about how it has pulled us into the forest for
the winter, creating a demand for our focus and attention on one
very blighted area exemplifying urban park deforestation. This
annual Asian vine is considered an emerging invasive in Morris
Park; however it is being spread rapidly and is occurring in the
most disturbed areas of the park. Along the southern portion of
the Eastern Branch of Indian Creek, where it appears soil has
been transported from elsewhere out of necessity to fill in
severely eroded streambanks, there is an especially dense
invasion of this species, which we have made attempts at pulling
out. Being that it is an annual, just pulling the plant before
it goes to seed i