Landcare Agony Aunt – Madeira Vine Madness

Dear Agony Aunt,

I have recently purchased a new property and there is a vine smothering the garden fence. It has fleshy, heart-shaped leaves and warty potato-like, aerial tubers. There are small white/cream flowers (it started flowering in December and has only just finished) that are clustered together, looking a bit like lambs’ tails. I have also seen it along the edge of waterways, smothering ground covers and tall trees, creating a spooky shape, reminiscent of the cartoon ghosts from Ghostbusters. I am concerned it is a weed.

How can I remove this from my fence line?

from Suspicious in Singleton

 Dear SiS,

It sounds like you’ve got Madeira vine (Anredera cordifolia) , also known as Lambs’ Tails or Potato Vine) growing rampantly over your garden fence. This State Priority Weed category is listed as containment and/or asset protection.

Because of its rambunctious nature, this Madeira vine threatens several endangered species of plants including the Square Raspwort (Haloragis exalata subsp. exalata) and three Endangered Ecological Communities.  Madeira vine is considered the most destructive and serious pest plant affecting the rainforest remnants in the North Coast region of NSW.  It poses a huge ecological threat to the World Heritage Listed Dorrigo National Park.

More locally, Madeira vine is listed as one of the Priority Weeds of the Hunter Region, and also a Weed of National Significance (known as WONS).

This one is a tricky one to remove! Many vines can be removed by locating the main stem, uprooting it from the soil and pulling the remaining vine down from the tree, or cutting off the stem and leaving the upper growth to die.

Not so with Madeira!

Unfortunately, you can’t effectively remove Madeira with these methods. In fact, Madeira can grow from tubers, leaves or stems! The light brown or green tubers that grow along the stems at every leaf junction, and form clusters, are aerial tubers that can sprout just where they are. Eventually, the weight of these clusters of tubers can pull down tree branches, causing them to collapse. Any tubers that fall to the ground can then also sprout, so forcibly removing Madeira vine from shrubs or trees will cause widespread prevalence of this tiresome weed. The roots also have tubers, which can be 20 cm in diameter.  Madeira has many strings to its bow!

So: How to contain or eliminate this spooky culprit?

There are numerous control methods listed here to contain Madeira vine.  These include physical removal by hand, biological control (with the leaf-feeding, South American Madeira Vine Beetle – Plectonycha correntina) and chemical controls including spot spraying, splatter gun, stem scraping (stems can be up to 20m long!) and the cut stump method.

A demonstration from South West Rocks Dune Care of a scrape and paint method can be seen here. Use this technique at any time of year, preferably before the next active growth stage in Sept-April. Make a note in your diary to check the ground beneath the infestation quarterly for several years and dig up and destroy new plants and tubers when they are first visible.

Hunter Regional Weeds has brought out this easy-to-read flyer with further support.  If you’d like some more comprehensive reading on Madeira vine, as well as Cats Claw Creeper (Dolichandra unguis-cati), in order to prepare for battle, here is a National best practice management manual for both of these troublesome vines.

Good luck with your endeavours to control this vigorous vine! This is hard work, so I recommend enjoying a piece of Madeira cake and a cup of tea after your working bees!