trip vine

I call this vine a trip vine because they sometimes grow across the ground and I would trip on them. The vines are almost woody-like and very strong. They would not break when I tripped on them and many times they would take me down to the ground. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they have thorns that would tear into my ankles.

They usually would draw blood and hurt. I got to dislike these vines because of the tripping and the thorns.

Isn't that a nasty looking thorn. Almost looks like a fang. When these vines show up in the yard, I cut them down. There was one vine which started to grow around the railing on the front porch.

This was a novelty and so we decided to let it continue to grow. And grow it did. A couple of days ago while standing on the front porch, I smelled a strong aroma very similar to jasmine. I like the aroma of jasmines and have some planted in the backyard. But I couldn't figure out where the aroma came from until I stepped near the trip vine.

Yep, that is where the aroma was coming from. I noticed what looked like flowers but without any color to them.

The flowers were incredibly small and looked to be very delicate. How could anything with such terrible thorns have such a sweet aroma? I guess that the vine is like the pretty rose that also has terrible thorns.

And just look at all of the buds. There are so many buds that I can look forward to the sweet aroma for some time to come. My opinion of these trip vines has changed somewhat to the better. By the way, does anyone know the real name of these vines? They like to rapidly grow up the sides of trees all the way up to the limbs. I always seem to be discovering something new in the plants of the yard. Have a good day and enjoy the sweet smells of spring. Lew