The plant is native to Asia, and was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s as an ornamental plant. The vines will smother and kill shrubs and small trees, but also deplete soil nutrients and moisture from other nearby plants, making growth and regeneration harder on native species. On the ground, the plant forms dense mats that can displace native species and deter seedling establishment by blocking sunlight. This vigorous vine aggressively invades forest openings, edges and rights-of-way, both growing across the ground and climbing high into the tree canopy by clinging to the bark. If allowed to establish and grow unchecked, the vine will spread over anything in its way, even overtopping trees and prohibiting foraging by wildlife and livestock. The invasive plant colonizes both vegetatively through its vine growth, as well as through distribution of its pink-capsulated seeds, which are spread by birds, small animals and water. Winter creeper is a perennial and is able to tolerate and spread quite rapidly in a wide variety of growing conditions. Plants typically flower only when climbing and almost never when trailing along the ground. Flowers are inconspicuous, yellow-green, and five-petaled and develop in midsummer.

Its opposite leaves are dark green, oval, slightly toothed, glossy, thick and often have a silvery-white venation. Winter creeper is a winter evergreen climbing woody vine that can also be a small shrub - growing in mats along the forest floor to 3 feet in height - or a vine climbing trees to heights of 40 to 70 feet.

Winter creepr