Miller, James H.; Manning, Steven T.; Enloe, Stephen F. 2010. A management guide for invasive plants in southern forests. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–131. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 120 p.
Chinese wisteria [Wisteria sinensis (Sims) DC.] and Japanese wisteria [W. floribunda (Willd.) DC.] are deciduous high climbing, twining, or trailing leguminous woody vines with long pinnately compound leaves and showy dangling clusters of spring flowers that appear before leaves. Chinese and Japanese wisterias are difficult to distinguish due to hybridization. Both colonize by vines twining and covering shrubs and trees and by runners that root at nodes when vines are covered by leaflitter. Seeds are water dispersed along riparian areas, but the large size of the seeds is a deterrent to animal dispersal. Still sold and planted with many cultivars. Resemble native or naturalized American wisteria [W. frutescens (L.) Poir.], which occurs in wet forests and edges and sometimes forms large entanglements but flowers in June to August after leaves develop.
Management strategies
- Do not plant. Remove prior plantings, and control sprouts and seedlings. Bag and dispose of plants and fruit in a dumpster or burn.
- Treat when new plants are young to prevent seed formation.
- Pull, cut, and treat when pods are not present.
- Anticipate wider occupation when plants are present before disturbance.
- Manually pull new seedlings when soil is moist, ensuring removal of all roots.
- Prescribed burning in spring can clear debris, sever climbing vines, and reveal hazards before summer applications.
- Repeated burning will not control.
Recommended control procedures
- Thoroughly wet all leaves (until runoff) with one of the following herbicides in water with a surfactant: (July to October for successive years when regrowth appears) Tordon 101* ‡ as a 3-percent solution (12 ounces per 3-gallon mix) or Tordon K* ‡ as a 2-percent solution (8 ounces per 3-gallon mix), or when soil activity is not desired: Garlon 4 as a 4-percent solution (1 pint per 3-gallon mix); (July to September for successive years when regrowth appears); Transline* † as a 0.5-percent solution in water (2 ounces per 3-gallon mix); or (September to October with repeated applications) a glyphosate herbicide as a 4-percent solution (1 pint per 3-gallon mix).
- For large vines, make stem injections using Arsenal AC*, Garlon 3A, or a glyphosate herbicide using dilutions and cutspacings specified on the herbicide label (anytime except March and April). The EZ-Ject tree injector assists in reaching through entanglements to treat. Spray the length of large surface vines using Garlon 4 as a 20-percent solution in a labeled basal oil product, vegetable oil, kerosene, or diesel fuel (where permitted) (5 pints per 3-gallon mix); or apply undiluted Pathfinder II to large vines, avoiding the bark of desirable trees.
* Nontarget plants may be killed or injured by root uptake.
‡ When using Tordon herbicides, rainfall must occur within 6 days after application for needed soil activation. Tordon herbicides are restricted use pesticides.
† Transline controls a narrow spectrum of plant species.
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