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Vincetoxicum rossicum
Also called European Swallowwort, Dog Strangling Vine, Pale Swallowwort, European Swallow Wort, Russian Swallow Wort
Pale swallow wort is a twining, climbing perennial vine from Ukraine and southwestern European Russia, now widely known as an invasive weed in North America. It is grown ornamentally in some areas, but it is usually best avoided because it spreads aggressively into native plant communities.
Vincetoxicum rossicum is a flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is a perennial herb native to southern Europe and is a highly invasive plant growing in all of the Eastern United States, in the mid west, and southern Ontario and Quebec in Canada. It has several common names including swallowwort, pale swallowwort, and dog-strangling vine; though it does not actually strangle dogs, it can “strangle” native plants and small trees if it is in dense patches. There has historically been much confusion about the genus it belongs to, with authors placing it within Vincetoxicum and others within Cynanchum, but recent molecular and chemical analyses have shown it to belong in the genus Vincetoxicum.
Vincetoxicum rossicum is native to Ukraine and southwestern European Russia and was introduced as an ornamental plant in North America, where it is considered invasive, particularly in the Great Lakes Basin. It is commonly found along with poison ivy plants.
Vincetoxicum tsaii · Vincetoxicum shaanxiense · Cynanchum elegans · Cynanchum floribundum · Vincetoxicum diplostigma · Vincetoxicum oblongum · Vincetoxicum auritum · Vincetoxicum forsteri · Vincetoxicum rupicola · Swallowwort · Vincetoxicum anomalum · Bearded Tylophora
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vincetoxicum rossicum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
