Don’t let the vine deceive you, it is a killer! The vine grows up on anything it can find, from fences to telephone poles. As it grows, it wraps itself around its victim, one that is not strong enough to break free of the vine and grows around it and in doing so eventually kills it.

Pamela B. Weatherbee writes in her “Flora of Berkshire County, Massachusetts” that the wild cucumber “Can be aggressive, swarming over other v…