Quote Originally Posted by Thumper View Post
Ha ha ha! Man, that brings back a memory Hidey-Ho! I was trying to run a deer out of a thicket I saw him go into. I'd already filled my tag and was "dogging" for my buddy hoping I could get him a shot. I ended up in a huge patch of those briers that have long green runners. They don't dry out like blackberry bushes, etc. ... but stay green and flexible (no clue what they're called, but they're deadly). I always hated spending 10 minutes fighting to get 5 feet, then a brier would catch my hat, snatch it off my head and flip it 10 feet behind me! Once I retrieved my hat, I'd start all over again. I remember getting in the middle of a huge patch once and I just couldn't go any farther. When my buddy finally hollered for me I asked him to call for a helicopter to drop me a line and lift me out'ta there! I don't know what those things are called, but they're the most miserable plant on the face of the earth IMHO.
That my friend is - multi-flora rose... and I was (we were) dead center in the middle of a 20 acre patch.. You come out of there you look like you've been sacking cats. Interesting part is it was native to Japan and the *government* brought it here in 1866 (actually some was brought here privately as early as the late 1700s for ornamentals). It was first planted to make a "living fence". Of course (as so often happens - It's not nice to fool (with) Mother Nature) it is highly invasive.. it got so bad here in the 60s and 70s you literally could not walk through many timbers without a set of shears to cut a path... And until about 1970 you could still buy plants from the DNR.

Enter (once again) the government - In the 80s they introduced some mites and diseases they had isolated through study. Not sure which - but one of the two went through ours like shit through a tin horn.. "Killed" virtually *all* of it.. It still comes back - but as soon as it get anything more than a few scattered plants - bug or sick wipes it out again..

Now - let me tell you about Tatarian Honeysuckle, another gift from the government.