Smilax smiley (aka, that *!X!!** vine)

It may not look like much--in fact it looks like a lot less than before--but those almost-vertical things are actually native wetlands trees or shrubs. They were buried under smilax, the horrible vine-with-claws, a really fast-growing briar. They had been buried for at least a few years, as the amount of dead wood showed. All of the trees were bent over towards the south--there must be some reason for that.

The green stuff on the floor is not grass, it's chopped-up smilax. It is a fate better than it deserves. It got in my hair, my boots, my gloves. I have a thorn embedded in a finger. Smilax gets right up my nose (literally, it hooked me) and must create more cursing than any plant on this planet, even more than stinging nettles (you can at least eat them) or poison ivy (it's pretty in autumn). They say you can eat smilax, or make booze from it, but I will leave that to the deer.

It will grow again, and quickly. Cut one shoot down and at least one more pops up. Maybe within hours. My theory is that the deer will find the young shoots tasty and, now that they can get to them, they will help me to keep it under control. That's the theory. In practise, I'll turn my back for an hour and everything will be back as it was... At least now the trees, shrubs and wild roses will have a chance to see daylight and to fight for their own space.



This is an example of a tree half-covered in smilax. See how high it has grown? It's tangled right into the top of the tree on the right of the trunk. Yuck.