We have been struggling with this vine for years. It climbs our fences from the neighbors' yards and overtakes our tree. The tree is now so ill we are cutting it down. My husband thinks it is kudzu, but I'm not sure.

I don't believe it is Kudzu. A grape perhaps?

porkpal said:I don't believe it is Kudzu. A grape perhaps?

It does not produce flowers or fruit. Just the vine.

Okay! The husband just mentioned he has seen tiny cucumbers on the vine. It's a runaway cucumber! Crazy...

It's not likely to be a runaway domestic cucumber from the description. It does look close to wild cucumber, Echinocystis lobata but that would have spiny fruits on it like this - is this what they look like?

THAT looks like a jimsonweed "fruit".............rip that sucker out and burn it!!!!!

The leaves sure resemble those of Wild Cucumber (Echinocystis lobata)
which is apparently found in many parts of the country. On this list of weeds of Nebraska and the Great Plains: https://plants.usda.gov/java/i...

Another possibility is One-Seeded Bur Cucumber (Sicyos angulatus) but I'm not sure it's found in Nebraska.
http://www.illinoiswildflowers...

sooby said:It's not likely to be a runaway domestic cucumber from the description. It does look close to wild cucumber, Echinocystis lobata but that would have spiny fruits on it like this - is this what they look like?

• Wild Cucumber (Echinocystis lobata)
• Uploaded by robertduval14

The hubby said they were "little spiney things like a tiny cucumber". The stems are fuzzy or furry and it has spiral things like offshoots (runners?). I looked at images of cucumber vines and it looked like a match to me. So I betcha you're right.

AnnaZ said:THAT looks like a jimsonweed "fruit".............rip that sucker out and burn it!!!!!

It's the fruit of wild cucumber, it's a climbing vine. But yes there is a resemblance in the fruit, but the plant as a whole is totally different.

AnnaZ said:THAT looks like a jimsonweed "fruit".............rip that sucker out and burn it!!!!!

It's not jimson weed, thank goodness.

Can you eat wild cucumber??

ShadyGreenThumb said:Can you eat wild cucumber??

No, not edible.

I've never seen anything I would want to eat on this vine. The cucumbers don't look like domesticated cucumbers, and the spines kind of scream "don't bother even picking me!" if you know what I mean. Sometimes you have to wonder why humankind ever bothered domesticating plants like this. But I'm glad we did!

By the way, thank you all for participating in the thread. This has been educational and fun.

Lizzard98 said:We have been struggling with this vine for years. It climbs our fences from the neighbors' yards and overtakes our tree. The tree is now so ill we are cutting it down. My husband thinks it is kudzu, but I'm not sure.

Did you try cutting away the vine by the roots before you cut down your tree? That's what we did when English Ivy started climbing up ours. We cut it at about shoulder height, then ripped it out from there down to the roots of the vine. The vine from shoulder height up just dried up and died, saving the tree. It's something that needs to be watch and repeated. This pic shows both the old dead vines and new growth on one of the trees.

That's a good idea, but the vine grows from the neighbor's yard and gets over the top of the fence. I will pass the advice on to the neighbor.
As for the tree, it was also rotting at ground level, so there was probably something more wrong with it.