NEW JERSEY INVASIVE SPECIES STRIKE TEAM www.njisst.org Mile-a-minute (Polygonum perfoliatum) Also called: Mile-a-minute knotweed, Asiatic : tearthumb, Devil’s tail, Persicaria perfoliata • Small, white, inconspicuous • Borne on short stalks off of saucer-shaped Family name: Knotweed (Polygonaceae) • Blooms late spring-early summer Native range: Asia Fruit: NJ Status: Emerging Stage 3 - Common (may be • Produced July-November regionally abundant). It is highly threatening to • Small, round, 0.2” in diameter natural communities. All newly detected occurrences • Borne in clusters should be eradicated. • Immature fruit is green; turns blue when mature General Description: • Each fruit contains a shiny, black or reddish • Herbaceous, annual, climbing vine up to 23’ (2 mm wide) long • Produces fruit continuously until the first • Grows up to 6” per day frost, when the begins to die back • Stems, stalks, and veins are covered in recurved prickles • Stems are delicate and highly branched; green to reddish-green in color • Dead, brown stems can persist through winter

Habitat: • Forest, edge, meadow, roadside, yard

Commercial Availability: Not found Mile-a-minute dies at the first frost each year, leaving behind dried stems. It regrows each spring Look-alikes: from seed. Porcelainberry (Ampelopsis brevidepunculata) Leaves: • Invasive vine • Alternate, toothless, triangular, 0.75-3” wide • Speckled purple to • Saucer-shaped leaf surrounds the stem at blue fruits base of leaf stem and base of • Leaf is lobed & • Barbed on the underside serrated, unlike mile- Porcelainberry’s a-minute leaf is very Saucer shaped different from leaf mile-a-minute

Hog- ( bracteata) • Native annual vine, climbing to 3’ • Each leaf has 3 leaflets- may appear somewhat triangular, sharply point tip • Flowers are pink-white, 3/8”

Hog-peanut

Young growth has arrow-like appearance