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Wisteria LaneThe "Desperate Housewives" are gone from TV, but desperation goes on along
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Invasive alien Chinese Wisteria holds the forest in its deathly grip, spreading with its allied invasive species to smother the native habitat of Lake Accotink Park. The small area pictured here, along the Lake Accotink Trail/Cross County Trail, between the park entrances at Hatteras Lane and Inverchapel Road is a forest of terror, horror, and fear for native plant species.
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Hatteras Lane park entrance, with a forbidding fringe
of invasive alien Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) 
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Closeup of an assassin, Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) 
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Swarming Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) smothers all in its ghastly grasp. 
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A chilling closeup of Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) brings a bolt of fear. 
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Spine tingling yet? Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) garrotes its victims en masse. 
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Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) stalks the trails. 
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Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) grows at a run, trying to block out the sun 
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A thicket of Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora) reaches out with thorns like demon claws. 
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Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) spreads like fire. Is resistance futile? 
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Alien bamboo (Phyllostachys sp.), a waking nightmare. 
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Hydra-headed Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius), lurks in the woods. 
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Closeup of terror, Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) 
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A new ogre of the woods, Perilla, (Perilla frutescens) once an innocent Asian vegetable, now escaped and becoming a monster. 
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The silvery goblin Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) 
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The undersides of Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) leaves glimmer like pale clammy fingers. 
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The leafy strangler, Oriental Bittersweet, (Celastrus orbiculatus) claims a victim. 
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Don't look back! The strangler Oriental Bittersweet, (Celastrus orbiculatus) is right behind! 
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The evergreen ghoul, English Ivy (Celastrus orbiculatus) drapes its spectral shroud over the trees. 
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Creeping inexorably, English Ivy (Celastrus orbiculatus) turns the forest floor into a crypt for native plants. 
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A writhing mass of twisted vines, a macabre merger of Oriental Bittersweet,(Celastrus orbiculatus) and Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) 
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Escape from Wisteria Lane, past a final gantlet of Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum)? You can run, but there's no place left to hide from the horror of these devil's weeds! 
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There are unseen phantoms here, too - invasive alien species that only appear in the spring, then fade away to invisibility - watching, waiting. Join Friends of Accotink Creek's "Klub Kudzu" Wednesday workdays to hold back the tide of invasive alien plant species. Learn more about invasive species. Contact Friends of Accotink Creek.
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