Birdwatchers have come to appreciate bittersweet berries as an emergency food source for birds in the winter, including Eastern bluebirds. Oriental bittersweet and false bittersweet are similar to sumac in this respect. All three plants are useful for attracting Eastern bluebirds to your landscape for birdwatching. My sumac article provides information on sumac's use, including sumac's ability to attract Eastern bluebirds.
Arts and crafts folks have also fallen in love with bittersweet (whether Oriental or false). Bittersweet vine can be used, in and of itself, to construct a fall wreath. In addition, smaller portions of vine laden with berries are often incorporated into wreaths composed primarily of other materials.
Stewards of the landscape in the U.S., however, are keeping a close eye on oriental bittersweet vine. Along with other exotic plants such as purple loosestrife and Japanese knotweed, Oriental bittersweet vine is one of the terribly invasive plants considered by many to be an environmental menace. Oriental bittersweet vines choke out native plants, replacing them with a monoculture. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that, invasive plants or not, bittersweet's vines are so captivating that they entice people to propagate them as a landscaping element. As if Oriental bittersweet vines needed any help in spreading!
Killing Oriental Bittersweet: How to Get Rid of This Invasive Plant
But what if you wish to save your trees and get rid of Oriental bittersweet? Herbicides can be used for the eradication of bittersweet vines. I personally can vouch for the effectiveness of Ortho Brush-B-Gon, a triclopyr-based herbicide. This product is designed to kill woody plants, making it effective against not only bittersweet, but also another nuisance vine: poison ivy plants. But it will kill many other plants, too, so don't use it near plants you wish to keep. Here's how this herbicide should be used:
- You'll need a tank sprayer; mix the product with water, according to directions.
- Apply when the bittersweet is fully leafed out.
- Pick a sunny day for spraying, with little or no wind.
- For bittersweet vine growing on the ground or on a wall, heavily spray the leaves and vines.
- For bittersweet climbing up a tree, you may wish to "paint" the herbicide on, so as to preclude damaging the tree with a stray mist from your sprayer.
To summarize, there are 3 plants in the eastern and central U.S. commonly called bittersweet:
- false bittersweet (Celastrus scandens):
- if you have false bittersweet on your landscape, you are fortunate: it's a great fall foliage plant
- it is not destructive
- nor is it an invasive plant.
- Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus):
- Oriental bittersweet, while beautiful, is destructive and difficult to eradicate, being one of the worst of North America's exotic invasive plants
- like Japanese knotweed, it spreads underground via rhizomes
- bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), the subject of Page 2:
- unrelated to the two other "bittersweets"
- pretty but poisonous
- the true bittersweet, having been classified as such prior to the other two
If the charms of Oriental bittersweet lure you into growing it on your property, at least take precautions against the spread of this highly invasive plant. Keep it confined to one area of your property by ruthlessly suppressing infestations elsewhere. Where you are allowing it to grow, visit often with your pruner; with proper attention, it is possible to tame Oriental bittersweet, restricting it to bush status. And if you are going to train it to grow vertically, construct a large trellis, or tie the vines to a fence. Do not allow Oriental bittersweet to grow on any tree whose health you value.
