Yellowjackets

A Yellowjacket worker searches the forest floor for a meal for her and her nest mates.

     Yellowjackets (Vespula spp.) are social wasps who can be beneficial most of the year. They however often come in conflict with people, specially in the Fall. Because of their striped appearance, they are often confused with bees, and most stings are actually due to Yellowjackets rather than bees. They are more slender however, with the thin wasp waist, and normally not very hairy as compared to bees such as honeybees.
     Yellowjackets as adults feed on sugars, nectar, rotting fruit, and occasionally scavenge. They can be minor pollinators of some flowers, but just are not built for it since they do not need to collect pollen to feed their young. Instead, they feed their young proteins in the form of insects and spiders that they sting and bring back to their nests. In this manner, they can be beneficial in controlling some insect populations, though they will just as likely sting and kill a beneficial insect as they would any pest species. If their prey is too large, the wasps will bring it back in pieces or ingest it to regurgitate back to the nest's young later. For a video showing one trying to capture a large food item, please check out this short clip from the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmAquJ7OZME

     Yellowjackets are social insects, with a queen laying eggs and workers (her daughters) providing such labor as building and repairing the nest, foraging for food, and defense. Males (drones) are produced once a year in the Fall. After mating, the newly fertilized queens find a secluded spots underground or in old logs to overwinter. The males die soon after mating. The old queen and her workers all die also, at least in our part of the country.
     In the spring, the new queen awakens and goes out to search for a place to start her nest. She often picks an old rodent burrow or rotten log. While most nests are underground, they will occasionally find open spaces in walls or build an aerial nest (there's one species, Aerial Yellowjackets, that almost always do). The nest is constructed of wood fibers that are chewed into pulp and then made into paper building material. This she uses to make the nest and the cells she lays her eggs into.

What it would look like if you broke into a Yellowjacket nest.

         After the first generation, workers take over most duties, but the queen is the only one who lays eggs. By the end of summer, the large paper nest may be the size of a basket ball and have 3,000 or even more workers. Because these structures are hidden underground or in old wood, we rarely see them. For a look at an active nest, please check out this short video clip from the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc4LQRf318M

The inside of a Yellowjacket nest revealing paper cells, larvae, and even some emerging new workers.

     On a steady stream of chewed up insects and spiders, the young quickly multiply. Because the nests are hard to see, people sometimes stumble upon them. Early in the season, there may not be many workers ready to defend the nest, but by Fall the numbers have swelled and the workers are more than willing to give up their lives in defense of their siblings and mother.
     Only females can sting, since the stinger is a modified ovipositor or egg laying apparatus. Males thus cannot sting. Females can do so repeatedly, injecting venom that can be painful and which they normally reserve for capturing prey. Predators include bears, skunks, and raccoons, though these often try and raid nests when it is cooler or stop their attacks early if the defense gets to be overwhelming. Since Yellowjackets do not produce honey, these predators are simply raiding to eat the larvae.
     When a worker stings, it tags whatever it has stung with a chemical marker that then targets the victim for any new wasp to sting. Once so marked, the female workers will attack their enemy relentlessly and will sometimes follow the perceived aggressor for quite a while before ceasing. This of course can lead to dangerous and painful situations, especially if someone is allergic to their stings.
     I happen to be someone who was allergic to Yellowjacket venom (though thankfully not to other stinging insects such as bees or paper wasps). In my case, I use to get stung numerous times a season. Though it hurt, I was not too worried about them. One day however, I was stung in the ear while at work at a nature center. After getting some ice and complaining to my coworker, I started feeling dizzy and then blacked out. I awoke in an ambulance and getting a rash and hives. After getting stung so often, though over time, my body had finally had enough getting envenomated. I had to go through a desensitization program of weekly injections until I had built up my resistance to their stings once more and still have to carry an epipen just in case. Interestingly, that was many years ago and I have not been stung since. I have a sixth sense it seems now in seeing their nests and avoiding them.

A Yellowjacket worker enjoys a sugary drink from a bottle cap.

     In the Fall is when we have most negative encounters. Not only are the nests large and there are more workers, but their behavior changes a bit too. Yellowjackets throughout the summer had to bring back food for the young and work to keep their nests in good shape. This included repairs, expansions, and keeping them dry. Workers of paper making nests have to sometimes drink excess water to keep the nest from getting destroyed after rains for example.
    By Fall however, new reproductives are being produced, the new drones and queens. There are fewer larval mouths to feed and many workers helping to do this. Many Yellowjacket workers thus go for the easiest food they can find. While their preference for sweets is usually satisfied with rotting fruit and nectar, many discover easy food near trash cans, picnics, and from our sodas and sugary confections.
     While I must say that I certainly am not crazy about Yellowjackets (and have every reason I think to not like them), I respect them and understand that they're beneficial and have a role in our natural world to play. I just take extra caution in my outdoor activities, especially this time of year.

Pawpaw

A nice clump of pawpaws nearing ripening under their huge, tropical-looking leaves. 

     North America's largest indigenous fruit is the Pawpaw, Asimina triloba, each attaining 3-6 inches in length when ripe. They are in the Custard-apple family Annonaceae, this genus being the Northern most members of this mostly tropical family. Like the Annonas and Cherimoyas I've eaten in Latin America, these too are quite edible. Their flavor is hard to describe, the consistency being like a banana, some people thinking they taste a bit like them, others comparing them to mangos and papayas. I don't think any of those is completely accurate though.

The Pawpaw is North America's largest indigenous fruit and the cold hardiest member of the custard-apple family. 

     Their most common name, Pawpaw or Paw-paw is thought to be derived from the word "papaya" with which they've been confused. They have numerous other names however, mostly due to their vague similarity to the banana: Wild Bananas, Michigan Bananas, Ozark Bananas, Hoosier Bananas, West Virginia Bananas, Kentucky Bananas, Prairie Bananas, Kansas Bananas, and Banango.

Flowers bloom when the leaves are still small and emerging.

      Pawpaws bloom in spring, usually just as their huge (up to 12 inches) tropical looking leaves start to grow. Being an understory tree or shrub, they need the large leaves to collect what little sunlight filters through the canopy. But blooming once the big leaves are out would obscure the flowers and interfere with pollination. Most of our spring blooming trees and shrubs thus do so when the leaves have not emerged or are just starting to grow for that reason.

The flower seen from underneath.

     The flowers are not your typical looking blooms either since they are attracting different types of pollinators. They lack the bright colors that many pollinators such as bees look for. Rather, they are likely pollinated by carrion flies, bottle flies, and carrion beetles. So they look (and often smell) like the color of meat: brown or maroon. They hang bell-like from the twigs, resembling the blooms of wild ginger, which often bloom underneath them at the same time and look a lot like them.
     Fruit set is often not very reliable. Not only do you need to attract unusual pollinators, but it is also believed that they are self-incompatible. Most of their reproduction is via suckers sprouting from the roots to grow a new tree. That means that a pawpaw patch may be all the same plant, all clones from the suckering roots. So you need pollen to be brought in from outside sources and you may get poor fruit set even with lots of flowers and a large colony of them. I've tried to hand pollinate them from the same clump and have not had good results.
     This, along with that the seeds may need 2-3 cold stratification periods (2-3 winters typically in the wild) to germinate, as well as that the fruits bruise and get over ripe easily, have made commercial production of this extremely cold hardy fruit problematic. People have tried (there's even a Pawpaw Foundation in Maryland trying to get commercial varieties that store and ship better) to make a business out of these, but have not often been successful. I've even heard of some people trying to keep orchards of pawpaw and hanging rotten meat when the trees are in bloom in the hopes of getting the right pollinators.

The flesh is soft and delicious, but does not store well and has large seeds.

     So production isn't easy. This is really too bad because the fruits are delicious! They are soft and juicy when properly ripe, with a strong tropical aroma. But getting them when just right and beating the wildlife to them is tough. Deer, bear, raccoons, possums, squirrels, mice, rats, voles, chipmunks, flying squirrels, turkey, and many other birds gobble them up. You need to wait until the fruit is a bit squishy, has a slight aroma, and is just starting to get yellowish with dark patches. Shaking a tree early in September around here sometimes results in a few good ones falling (and bruising themselves). They do not store well, especially if packed with other pawpaws or fruits which seems to make them ripen even faster. They might last a week if not bruised and refrigerated. A word of caution however, a small number of people have a slightly allergic reaction to the fruit skin, leaving a skin rash. My grandson falls into this category for example.
     The fruits also have a slight laxative effect, so take care how many you eat. A fellow naturalist related to me how he took scouts overnight camping one time and let them discover the joys of eating pawpaws. He warned them to just eat one or two apiece, but some of them, liking the pawpaws so much, harvested many more for use as night snacks, with predictable results.      

The large fruits have large seeds. Here's a handful from a single fruit.

     They have large seeds, but these are easy to remove. I often find them in the scat of other animals in the woods. They seem to sometimes be dispersed by the water as well, with most colonies growing near water ways.

Pawpaws have a golden Fall color, though the trees are short, they grow clumped together making for a showy look. 

     Though individual trees rarely get to 40', they are usually in clonal colonies. These pawpaw patches have yellow Fall color that makes them stand out. They also have fairly smooth, grey bark (though the older specimens get wartier as they age). The buds are also somewhat fuzzy, making them not too difficult to identify even in winter.

Pawpaw buds are hairy, which along with the smooth gray bark (sometimes a bit warty on bigger trees) make them fairly easy to identify even in winter.

The trunk of a Banango showing the start of the warts and bumps large specimen end up getting. 

     The trees have very large leaves that when crushed have a smell reminiscent of petroleum. Few things will actually eat the leaves (mules being one of them). This has resulted in their actually being one of the few native plants benefiting from the over population of deer we normally have in our region. They tend to eat other plants and seedlings first, selectively allowing pawpaws to survive better at least initially, though at the expense of other plant diversity.

The Michigan Banana is the sole larval host (food plant) for the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly in our region. Here several males are puddling collecting salts and minerals. 

     One animal that really needs them though (other than for their delectable fruit) are Zebra Swallowtail Butterflies. Their caterpillars can feed on nothing else, pawpaws being their sole host plant. There are two species of Asimina (pawpaws) in the Northeast by the way, though the Dwarf (Small-fruited or Small-flowered) Pawpaw Asimina parviflora does not range into our DC region. Zebra Swallowtails are believed to retain some of the chemicals that make the plant distasteful and even toxic to other animals (mostly acetogenins) as a means of defense. You likely will never find these caterpillars on the pawpaws though, unless you visit the trees at night when the caterpillars climb out of the leaf duff and climb up to feed in safety from hungry birds. 

     The first European to note the use of the plant for food was DeSoto in the lower Mississippi in 1541. Since then many others have enjoyed them. It was claimed to be a favorite of George Washington who loved them when served chilled. Thomas Jefferson made sure to plant pawpaws on his plantation, and Lewis and Clark recorded eating them on their voyage of discovery, surviving off of them for 3 days. I've had both pawpaw bread and ice cream and can highly recommend them. Some enterprising folks have made jams and used them as substitutes for bananas in many dishes. I've even heard of wine being made from them, though have yet to taste that.

     Though  use of the huge fruits for food is obvious, there are many twists to their uses. The Iroquois not only made breads and cakes from them, but also sun dried the fruits for later use. The Cherokee not only ate them, but also used the inner bark fibers for rope, mats, and for stringing fish. 

     Francis Porcher, who wrote a Confederate treatise on using plants for many ethnobotanical purposes during the Civil War shortages, made some interesting notes on the use of the plant other than for food. Noting the chemical properties, he suggested using the juice from the unripe fruit to treat intestinal worms and the rinds to treat ulcers. He noted the poisonous seeds and how when crushed had been used to treat head lice. Porcher recorded that the leaves could be fed to hogs and poultry to tenderize them, claiming that freshly cut meat could be hung over the leaves to also tenderize them. The acetogenins that give the leaves their strong smell and make them distasteful to most wildlife are now being tested for use in treating tumors and as insecticides. 

     So you can see that there's a lot more to this plant than just its tasty fruit. But for me, that would be enough anyways. In 2009, Ohio declared the Pawpaw its official state native fruit. Not sure what took them so long, people have been enjoying pawpaws for such a long time. I know I look forward to visiting my favorite pawpaw patch very September. always trying to outguess the critters competing with me to get the Wild Bananas! 

Handsome Meadow Katydid

An aptly named male Handsome Meadow Katydid calls from the low vegetation by a wetland. 

     I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite Orthopterans (the grasshopper, cricket, and katydid family).  The Handsome Meadow Katydid (Orchelimum pulchellum) is about one inch long and has some beautiful translucent colors with bluish eyes. It sings in low vegetation and is usually associated with water, calling mostly during the day but also at occasionally at night. The Genus name is Greek for "I dance in the meadow" which I think is quite fetching. The species name simply means "pretty." Again, all the very appropriate. 

A female Handsome Meadow Katydid shows the large ovipositor used for egg laying. 

     As in most Orthopterans, the males do the "singing" which is actually called stridulation and is achieved by rubbing of their wings. Other Orthopetrans use their legs or combination with wings, while some like the Camel Crickets we find in out basements are wingless and do not call at all . The call of the Handsome Meadow Katydid sounds a bit like a water sprinkler to me. Females choose the best singers and then use their long ovipositors to lay eggs in grass stems. 

     A look at male versus female, as well as a grasshopper for comparison here:

                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDv013ZP-g0

     In general, grasshoppers differ from katydids in having short antennae while katydids have long antennae. Crickets tend to have flat backs and are also normally brownish in color. They also have long antennae. These insects together make up the order of insects called Orthopetra. 

     Despite the colorful nature of Handsome Meadow Katydids, they are extremely difficult to see. They can be singing inches from you and still be well concealed. Several times I've been listening to one which had to be right in front of me, only to fail in finding him. When disturbed they will quickly go silent (and those nearby will take the cue and do the same). They have an interesting habit, like many other katydids and grasshoppers, of using the stalk they're sitting on for cover. They will flip to the back side of the stem or stalk and use it for both a physical and visual shield. They can play this game of flipping to the opposite side for quite a while until finally jumping away.
     To hear one calling and learn a bit more about them, check out this short video from the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel:

                               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l0JvqqG-NI

A female Handsome Meadow Katydid ovipositing eggs into a stem.

Golden Garden Spider

The Golden Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) goes by a variety of common names.

     The Golden Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) has numerous common names: Yellow Garden Spider, Golden Argiope, Black-and-yellow Garden Spider, Writing Spider, Zigzag Spider, Signature Spider, Common Garden Spider, Corn Spider, McKinley Spider, Yellow Garden Orbweaver, and Zipper Spider for examples. This large and colorful orb weaving spider is common in fields and sunny gardens where it constructs its large (up 2ft) web low to the ground where they are protected from the wind.
     The web typically has a reinforced web decoration called a stabilimentum in its center. This web feature gives the spider several of its common names. The purpose of the zigzag webbing has often been debated. When young it is believed to help hide the spider. When older, some believe the web helps to keep large predators such as birds from stumbling into it and destroying the web. Others have theorized and some experiments seem to show that it makes the web attractive to some potential prey. Its favored prey include katydids, grasshoppers, and bees, though there are reports that even small lizards can be caught.

The web decoration, called a stabilimentum, gives this spider several of its common names and its function has many theories behind it.

     The web center is usually consumed each day by the spider and a new center built, while the outside structure tends to remain the same. The orb webs are usually less than three feet off the ground, but can be two feet in diameter. The spider usually hangs head-down in the center of the web with its legs paired up and spread. When threatened, it may shake the web vigorously, sometimes blurring the spiders appearance or making it appear larger and more visible. They may also drop down or hide in the nearby foliage if danger threatens.

This is what this Argiope spider looks like from underneath. The head-down position and spread, paired legs is typical for them. 

     Females can be almost two inches long, while the males tend to be much smaller, rarely reaching even 1/4 of an inch in size. The males are also more slender of build and often live or hang out on the outskirts of the female's web. They sometimes even steal food from the females. He needs to be careful however as she may eat him, particularly after mating. Males often have draglines ready and drop off if the female gets too close.

A Golden Argiope egg sac

     Their papery egg sacs are marble-sized and tough, holding up to 1,000 eggs, and are often hidden in the web. If well fed, 3-4 can be produced in one season. The young do not emerge until the following spring (though they normally are born in the Fall), often ballooning with the wind to new nest sites. The females live less than a year, dying by the first frosts. The males usually die right after breeding. 

     While large and colorful, these are not dangerous spiders. Although capable of biting, they rarely do so. A bite is supposed to be no worse than a bee sting. Here's a short video featuring this large, colorful garden spider which become more evident in late summer and early Fall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwfHHkkeKc0&t=1s

Catalpa Sphinx Moth Caterpillars

Catalpa Sphinx Moth caterpillar or "hornworm" with frass (droppings) behind it.

     Catalpa Sphinx Moth caterpillars (Ceratomia catalpae) can only survive by feeding on leaves of their host plant trees of Catalpas, thus the inclusion of the tree's genus name even in its scientific name. Luckily for this species of hawk (aka sphinx or hornworm) moth, both North American species of trees (Northern and Southern Catalpas) have been planted as ornamentals well outside their natural range, including in the DC region. With it arrived the caterpillars to feed on it.
     Catalpa Hornworms or Catawba Worms, as they're sometimes called, are large, colorful (variable mix of black backs and yellow sides mostly) caterpillars with the spike typical of hornworms on the back end. They group together when young (the eggs are laid in rafts numbering several hundred) but become more solitary as they mature. They will commonly  thrash around and regurgitate green liquid if they're bothered.

Catalpa or Catawba Worm. It has already regurgitated some of its goo on my fingers behind it.

     Catalpa Worms are often used for fish bait and the tree itself is sometimes referred to as the "fish bait tree." The trees occasionally were even planted in small groves in the South for this purpose. Bass supposedly find the Catawba Hornworms irresistible. They've even been sold in bait shops in some parts of Florida.
     The caterpillars can break out in huge numbers, sometimes with two generations in a year, and are capable of defoliating the tree. For the most part though, the tree recovers with no long lasting harm. They usually do not have population explosions on the same tree in subsequent years. More over, the caterpillars have 15 species of parasitic wasps that feed on them and quickly reduce their numbers. With the spread of the Catalpa trees outside their native range and into our region, so have followed the Catalpa Sphinx Moth caterpillars, and the numerous parasites who need them have also followed.

Two Catalpa Hornworms. The bottom one is parasatized with Braconid Wasp cocoons.

     Many of these wasps are in the family Braconidae. Braconid wasps are very small and cannot sting people. They are however parasitoids and kill the host caterpillar. Parasites may harm and certainly do not help their hosts, but don't always kill the host. Parasitoids always kill or sterilize them. People often find caterpillars (including Catawba Worms) with little sacks attached to them that they assume are eggs. These are actually the pupae, or cocoons, of the wasps that have finished feeding and are metamorphosing into adults.
     The caterpillars, though often stunted and slow to react, look alive with their extra baggage of cocoons, but the damage has been done and their days are numbered. Removing the cocoons does nothing as the caterpillar is doomed. Its non-vital organs have been consumed and in essence only a zombie remains.

A Braconid Wasp (Apantles congregata) has just emerged from its cocoon near the spike on this Catalpa Sphinx Moth caterpillar.

     For a video of a Catalpa Sphinx Moth caterpillar covered in cocoons and with a Braconid Wasp (I believe it to be the most common one found on them, Apanteles congregata) emerging, check out the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel link below. Copy and paste if the link does not work when clicked:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h44tRF_WjJM

     This may seem cruel, but they keep the number of these caterpillars in check and thus keep everything in balance. Nature isn't always kind, but it is interconnected and fascinating.

Giant Resin Bees

     Giant Resin Bees (Megachile sculpturalis), perhaps better called Sculptured Resin Bees since there are bigger ones in the world, are quite active this time of year. The largest Megachilid bees in North America, they're not supposed to be part of our landscape. They can reach an inch long, particularly the larger females, and are among the largest of any bees in our region. Megachilids such as Mason, Leaf-cutter, Carder bees, and their allies mostly carry their pollen on modified "hairs" (setae) on their bellies as opposed to the pollen baskets on the hind legs of many other bee families.  

Two Giant Resin Bees facing off. You can see the pollen on the "scopa" or pollen hairs on the belly of the lower one. They actively compete with each other, even stealing each others resin.

     Giant Resin Bees are native to Japan and other parts of Asia. They first appeared in North Carolina in 1994 and have since spread throughout most of the South and into Canada. They have also now been introduced into Europe, having been captured in France and Italy in 2008. What affect they have on native bees, other pollinators, and plants still needs to be confirmed, but they certainly compete for similar resources at least. It appears that despite their large jaws, Sculptured Resin Bees do not actually excavate very much or make their own holes. So they use cavities and holes they find, often competing with other creatures who also need them. This is especially true with Carpenter Bees, with the Resin Bees often using their old holes and perhaps keeping the Carpenter Bees from then using the burrows later on when they need them. Some claim the resins the bees use can harm or even kill Carpenter Bees. Others have reported that they attack other bees, even killing Honey Bees. 

A Giant Resin Bee takes over a Carpenter Bee hole.

     I myself have noticed them using Mason Bee boxes and tubes that I've put out. Luckily almost all the Mason Bees have completed their active life cycle by mid summer when these exotic bees emerge and become active. The Mason Bees are nestled in sealed tubes by then. But I've seen Sculptured Resin Bees trying to make use of the empty holes and tubes, which are then not available the next spring for Mason Bees, or the Leaf-cutters that sometimes also utilize them. More disturbingly, I have often found the paper tube inserts or tubes themselves (both empty and those with sealed Mason Bee larvae) either completely pulled out or half way pulled out of the boxes with Giant Resin Bees then utilizing the now-larger holes. I've never caught one actually pulling them out (though I've seen them mouthing them), but I think it's perhaps more than a coincidence.

Two Sculptured Resin Bees seal their own tubes and provision others in a Mason Bee box. Some tubes are still empty and available and some have had their paper inserts removed. 

     Like most members of the Megachilidae family, both males and females visit and pollinate flowers. These are solitary bees, with each female choosing a hole or cavity to set-up housekeeping. With no queens, workers, or guards (like the vast majority of bees), she takes on every role by herself. Sometimes many females will utilize the same area or piece of wood if the location or situation is very favorable. Pollen is collected and mixed with nectar to make a ball of food that is deposited in the hole. After enough is collected, she lays a single egg and seals the cell, often with tree resin as well as mud and bark. She might complete up to 10 cells per hole or tube before sealing everything off again, often with an extra layer of resin.

A Giant Resin Bee egg attached to its food hoard at the end of a cell.

     When the eggs hatches, the developing bee larva feeds on these food stores throughout the summer. It will pupate and spend the winter in its cell before pupating and emerging in mid summer as an adult bee that then starts the cycle all over again.

A newly hatched Giant Resin bee larva on top of its food stores. 

An opened Mason Bee house that instead is full of various stages of developing Giant Resin Bees and their cells. 

     On the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel you can see a video of Giant Resin Bees around an old shed. Please copy and paste if this link doesn't work for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Roqt6ggbE&feature=youtu.be 

     Again, no one is sure if these exotic bees affect our native pollinators and especially our bees. It appears though that at minimum they compete for food and nesting sites, if they don't outright attack or kill other bees. That they are also one of the primary pollinators for Kudzu in their native lands is also unnerving, since this invasive plant certainly doesn't need any more help reproducing. Giant Sculptured Resin Bees have spread dramatically through both North America and Europe and may indeed be something to worry about. We shall see.

Honeyvine

Sweet smelling Honeyvine.

     I noticed that the Honeyvine (Cynanchum laeve) was in bloom today. I always seem to notice its sweet scent before seeing the vine or its small flowers. It can be quite abundant, actually sprawling aggressively over other vegetation when in ideal condition, but not always noticed until you smell its blooms.
     Honeyvine goes by a variety of other names: Honeyvine Milkweed, Climbing Milkweed, Bluevine Milkweed, Smooth Swallow-wort, Sandvine, Smooth Anglepod, Peavine, Dog's-collar,

Honeyvine Milkweed flowers. 

     Many people do not know that this native vine is also a host plant for the Monarch butterfly caterpillar. While not in the same Genus, Asclepias, it is in the same milkweed family. They may not like it as much as Common Milkweed, but it is comparable to some others and maybe more preferred than some.

A Monarch caterpillar feeding on Climbing Milkweed. 

     So this is an interesting vine with lots of things going for it, if you have the space to let it run wild.