My nomination for Invasive Plant of the Year: Bittersweet.
Dad thought it would be neat to plant this thing at the
shady end of the old grape arbor where the grapes have
pretty much died out. Dad is gone now, but the bittersweet
had become quite robust, taking over most of the grape
arbor and had migrated over to a power pole and was two
thirds of the way up. The latter looked like an especially
bad idea. So I decided that it has to go, and after a half
a day of digging, pulling, and cutting, I'm confident that
I have failed to eliminate it. Who would have suspected
that even a quarter inch vine shoot connects to a one inch
root below the ground's surface? Yes, it has lush green
foliage and pretty red-orange berries and grows fast. I
suspect it may even be sentient, as it tried several times
to strangle, trip, or ensnare me as I was working on it.
I look forward to attacking this worthy opponent again in
the spring ;-)