I’M A WEED

Bridal Creeper

Bridal Creeper

Asparagus asparagoides

Perennial climber with stems to 3 m long, slender, wiry, twining and much branched. Foliage dies back over winter, regenerating each year from underground tubers. Cladodes (leaf-like modified stems) are glossy, bright green, 1-7 cm long by 0.5-3 cm wide, stalkless, alternate, broad at the base, with a pointed tip. Round berry fruits, ripen to orange-red. Roots are dark, cylindrical branching rhizomes bearing numerous pale, fleshy tubers which form a dense mass about 5-10 cm deep in the soil.

Threat / Problem
• Extremely competitive, smothers native vegetation and can form an impenetrable mass. Tuber mat makes a thick barrier just below the soil surface that limits moisture and nutrients for other plants.

Spread
• Seed dispersed by birds, foxes, rabbits and in mud on animals, clothing and machinery. New plants grow from broken pieces of the root system.

Control
• Herbicide is most effective in Spring, after flowering, when tubers are depleted, before fruit forms.
• Two biological controls are available; Bridal creeper leaf rust and bridal creeper leaf hopper. The leaf rust is visible as small orange spots (spores) on the leaf underside. It is easily distributed in
84 Autumn. Ask an NRM Officer for more information.

BRIDAL CREEPER FACT SHEET 

Bridal Creeper

GROW ME INSTEAD

Old Man’s Beard

Old Man’s Beard

Clematis microphylla

Twining woody climber with sparse foliage. Leaves usually as three oblong leaflets 0.8-3 cm long.

In spring the plants are covered with masses of attractive greenish-cream star shaped flowers 1.5-2.5 cm long. Male and female flowers are on different plants. Female flowers develop into clusters of fluffy seeds with long feathery plumes which give the plant its name. Can be grown as ground cover or climber but only gives sparse foliage cover. Naturally they climb over other trees or shrubs.

Old Man’s Beard