What causes there's vines all over my tree?
Ivy gets planted as groundcover and then does what it does: it runs along the ground until it touches something vertical, then climbs, and only flowers and sets berries once it has climbed. Birds carry the berries to new trees. English ivy is the usual offender and is non-native and invasive; native Virginia creeper, which carries leaves in fives, climbs the same way and is generally the milder version. Unmown fence lines, wooded edges, and the shaded back corners of yards are where it gets its head start unnoticed.
What you'd see
A mat of dark green leaves climbing the trunk, gripping the bark directly with short hairy rootlets. In the case that actually matters, the vine reaches the canopy and spreads sideways through the branches, so a green trunk turns into a green crown. Bark hidden from the ground up. In winter the vine stays green while the tree is bare, which is the easiest time of year to see how far up it got. A hairy ropy vine with leaves in threes is poison ivy — a different problem and a crew-safety issue.
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