Mile a Minute: Accurate Identification

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- Mile-a-minute is an invasive trailing vine with barbed stems and triangular leaves.

It's a member of the buckwheat family, originally from India and East Asia.

This species was first documented in York County, Pennsylvania in the 1930s.

Mile-a-minute is listed as a class B noxious weed by the state of Pennsylvania, a designation which restricts sale and acknowledges a widespread infestation that cannot be feasibly eradicated at a statewide scale.

Mile-a-minute is an herbaceous annual, meaning it dies each fall, and new plants grow from seeds germinating in the spring.

Its seeds can remain viable in the soil for at least five years.

Growing up to six inches per day, each vine can grow 20 to 30 feet in length.

The vines form dense, tangled mats of intertwined vegetation.

The massive vine blankets and slowly smothers native vegetation, blocking sunlight and thus the underlying plant's ability to photosynthesize.

The dense mats can eventually kill overtopped plants.

Mile-a-minute is extremely destructive and persistent, despite being an annual.

Its leaves are distinctly triangular or arrowhead-shaped, one to three inches wide, vibrant green, and bearing many hooked barbs along the underside of the central vein and leaf stem or petiole.

Round leaf-like structures called ocrea completely encircle the main stem at the base of each leaf petiole.

While the pale green flowers are not noticeable, mile-a-minute vine produces distinct metallic blue or purple berry-like fruits in late summer, each approximately 1/4 of an inch across.

The fruit appear in an elongated cluster at the vine's tips.

The clusters have a round, cup-like leaf structure directly below them.

The stems are thin, flexible, and covered in tiny hooked barbs.

The barbs enable the vine to climb over plants and manmade surfaces.

During winter, the tangle of dead stems persist, forming a mat over desirable vegetation.

Mile-a-minute fruits are small and often distributed by accidental movement.

They're dispersed easily by moving contaminated soil found on vehicles, ATVs, heavy machinery, and logging equipment.

They can also be dispersed by water in riparian areas.

The fruit is buoyant for up to nine days and can be deposited far downstream from parent colonies.

In addition, the fruit is eaten by birds, various small mammals, and deer which deposit the seeds in their droppings.

This is presumed to be the main cause of long-distance spread.

The fruit is available for consumption from midsummer through fall.

Mile-a-minute seed can remain viable for at least five years, making eradication difficult.

Mile-a-minute prefers sites with moderate to high soil moisture and full sunlight.

It rapidly colonizes forest edges, wetlands, roadsides, stream banks, and uncultivated fields.

Fragmentation of forests from roads, other rights of ways, and development is creating more and more open habitat for this species.

To summarize, mile-a-minute is an annual trailing vine with barbed stems, triangular leaves, round leaf-like structures on the main stem, and purplish blue berry-like fruit.

Despite being an annual, its rapid growth and prolific seed production make this plant very difficult to control.

By using these key characteristics, you'll be able to properly identify mile-a-minute on your property as well as across the landscape.

This is the first step in any invasive plant control program.