PlantFiles: Skunk-vine
Paederia foetida

Although it is a very pretty vine it smells awful and immediately grows over anything in it's path. I pulled it up by the roots - hopefully it won't come back next year.

This is a Category I Exotic Pest Plant in north and central Florida. Though the flowers are not unattractive, everything possible should be done to eradicate it everywhere in this state.

If only I had a solution to get rid of this. It is even taking over my trumpet vine. We mowed (it clogged up the mower) it over the ferns it took over, poured a thick layer of mulch over it and it's still popping up through. Plus, it can now be found in lots of areas on my acre. I pull it out and it comes back.

I consider this a nightmare weed! I live in Citrus county in Florida and this vine was introduced to my yard in a load of mulch we got at the county landfill. That was the first and last time we got mulch from there! The vine keeps covering my azalea and camelia bushes and nothing I do seems to permanently get rid of it. It's even migrating into the lawn! Any suggestions for how to get rid of it would be very welcome.

Paederia foetida (skunk vine) is even worse than it sounds. It really is nasty smelling, rank growing, agressive, and climbing to the treetops and smothering mature trees. Amazingly, even though it is so invasive in a few counties near and just north of Tampa, Florida, it does not seem to have spread much beyond this region. I suspect that this could be because it may prefer neutral to alkaline pH soils, in contrast to the acid soils of most of Florida. I believe it is also invasive in some other parts of the subtropics.