2008-08-24

That Dang Vine - identified

Clematis. Specifically, a sub-varietal of Western White Clematis, Clematis ligusticifolia Nutt., at least I'm presuming a sub-varietal as some of the pictures don't quite match, but then I may just be being ... picky ...

Nice picture, isn't it? Yes, I need to invest in software which will let me watermark shots like this one, taken by me, John Mead, August 22, 2008, in my backyard, using a refurbed Kodak EasyShare P850, then cropped using FastStone Image Viewer, which is nice software. Hmm, doco at their website indicates I could do this with their software, but my system just did funkyness and I want to publish this prior to rebooting.

There you have it, The Vine That Ate Our Backyard. Surrounded, in this case by blackberries. Or it was, until I ripped it bodily apart after finishing taking my photos. They claim it only reaches a max height of one foot, depends on how they define max height, I guess. Trust me, I was eye-to-eye with this thing, and I'm considerably taller than one foot. Unsupported height, not climbing on anything, even itself? Might be limited to one foot. Maybe. Doubt it. They lie like a rug, a cheap rug, the kind of rug Mickey Spillane would have on the floor of his P.I.'s office, uncushioned, stained with spilt rotgut, cigarette ashes, and the broken hearts of a million dames like the one who just walked through the door.

So, was I getting into the proper flow? :grin:

Anyway, time to

Post this Puppy!


Edit 2017 09 15: Removed link to Kodak regarding Kodak EasyShare P850, as they no longer provide any information about it. Other links unchanged, as they were still valid.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This vine is evil. I was (and still sorta is) in my backyard. You have to get all the roots out, or it comes back. The flowers go to puff ball seed like dandelions, so it spreads horribly, etc. I hates it and there is so much of it engulfing trees and poles roadside that we may never be able to eradicate it from our yards completely. The previous owner thought it was pretty and let it grow up the neighbors fence. It helped collapse said fence and we (the neighbor and I) decided they could leave that portion of the fence out so we could continue to pull the damn thing out when it sprouts. *sigh*

BTW. Really glad to hear from you :)

-Cheriti

John Robert Mead said...

*snort*
Already figured out this is a multi-year task, nay, not a task, a mission, a quest, nay a vocation, yes, a vocation to rid us of this vile weed so I may then take a vacation whilst considering how to best utilize the liberated province which providence will have granted us!

Kept hoping it wasn't Western White Clematis, wanted it to be some vile invader rather than a vile native, but vile is as vile does, it shall not serve, vile it is, away, avast, avaunt ye!

More sanely.

Yep, me and them is agonna be at it fer years, 'm sure, but digging inta d' ground when wet taint that hard to work on here, now is it? jest gotta get flags ta mark t' root balls, 'n then we'll lay fer 'em.

Well, maybe not more sanely...