Boston ivey parasitic?

[John Paul Sanborn]

Isaw one the other day in a wooded lot, growing up the side of a declineing green ash.

There were large masses of roots coming out and going into the bark, I cut the bark out and it sure looked like it was groing into the cambium.

Have otheres seen this, or should I send this to a lab?

 

[Stumper]

I thought that it sank its roots into Brownstones and sucked the brains out of the yuppie occupants.

 

[Dan F]

JPS-
How soft was the dead wood? Could it be that the "rootlets" of the ivy just found the wood soft enough to "burrow" into?

I've seen a lot of vining plants growing into crevases of bark, was it something similiar?


Dan

 

[M.D. Vaden]

By any chance, was the bark "living", or attached to live tree tissue ( that the vine was attached too).

That's a new one to me. Most here is on walls.

Fairly invasive little pest too.

I understand that it can overload structures after several decades as the weight of the vines and leaves increases in weight.

Let us know what you find out. That's worth understanding.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

It is a large, live green ash where the decline is obvious in the canopy.

The bark i cut out was living, the rootlets apeared to be growing into the cambium.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Are these roots, rootlets, or jsut "holdfasts", which I undersamd don't have absorptive capability.

i've taken english ivy --hedera helix, are we talking about the same plant?--off many trees and never seen the parasitism you describe with host cambium invaded. I think just the root competition and eventual light competition are parasitism enough, and recommend it come off most trees.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

This is not the overgrowth that the PNW has or the south cost sees with kudzu. What caught my eye wat that these rootlets were fatter in the deeper crennelations of the bark and seemed to the naked eye to go into the cambial layer.

Myabe if I see it again I'll send a sample in for a disceting microscope.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn
these rootlets were fatter in the deeper crennelations of the bark and seemed to the naked eye to go into the cambial layer.
These "rootlets" are jsut holdfasts. They get fatter in the crevices because they are HOLDING FAST there.

Myabe if I see it again I'll send a sample in for a disceting microscope.

Try a magnifying glass. they don't enter the cambium, bertcha a nickel.