Many of Bloomington’s best-loved natural areas are under attack, and the culprit may be lurking in your yard.  Purple wintercreeper is a popular evergreen ground cover planted in yards all over Bloomington  It is also an invasive vine  that escapes cultivation and invades forests, displacing native wildflowers and threatening tree regeneration. 

Dense infestation of purple wintercreeper covering the forest floor, displacing native plants and threatening tree regeneration.

Purple wintercreeper has evergreen, opposite leaves with teeth, and the vines can climb trees and structures.

MC-IRIS is partnering with the Bloomington Urban Woodlands Project (BUWP) to keep our natural areas healthy and diverse for generations to come. Purple wintercreeper invaded and covered most of Dunn’s Woods and Latimer Woods in Bloomington before a BUWP volunteer effort spent hundreds of hours controlling the infestations. We’ve reduced the populations of wintercreeper in these two woods by over 90%, and hope to remove the rest over the next few years.

But there’s a problem.         No matter how well we control  wintercreeper in these two forests, if there is wintercreeper growing in yards around the woods, birds will bring the seeds into the forest and re-infest these sites.

The picture at left shows the orange fruits that are produced when the vine climbs trees, which then get eaten and spread by birds.. 

The picture at right shows how densely wintercreeper can grow on trees, making them unattractive and vulnerable to windthrow.

Here’s the solution. We contacted the neighborhood associations within the vicinity of Dunn’s Woods and Latimer Woods to offer a free opportunity to help identify and control purple wintercreeper in these neighborhoods.  Six neighborhoods applied and two were chosen - Arden Place and SoMax. Residents from both helped at two work days to learn about wintercreeper identification and control, one at Dunn's Woods and one at Latimer Woods.

Great volunteer turnout at Feb. 22 work day to control wintercreeper at Dunn's Woods - and great weather!

Monica Gregory, invasive control intern, demonstrates the rolling method of wintercreeper pulling at the Dunn's Woods work day.

Joel Grant, Bloomington Parks and Recreation, shows off wintercreeper vines cut from a tree at the Latimer Woods work day on March 8.

Next we'll visit each neighborhood to put on a control demonstration, and then Monica Gregory, our invasive control intern, will help neighbors start to control wintercreeper in their yards.  Working together, we can make make a real difference in our community and decrease this green menace.

Want to learn more about wintercreeper?  Here's a fact sheet all about it.

Want to know four ways to control wintercreeper?  This guide will show you the way.