Looks like it might be bindweed, aka wild morning glory, which can put out underground runners 20' long. Killing the foliage won't kill the roots. It will put out a small, lavender bloom in summer. Don't let it form seed. You might try the "root in the bottle" trick mentioned a few threads below.

Perhaps snailseed is what I've been fighting. Looking at Google images of bindweed and snailseed, I can't tell much difference in the foliage, and both put out long runners. I see, in some of the snailseed images, the small, lavender bloom I mentioned. On the other hand, I've never observed those clusters of red berries on my vines. Perhaps I haven't given mine a chance to ripen. All academic, I suspect, since both plants seem virtually impossible to eradicate. I've killed a lot of vines with the "bottle trick," but there's been no shortage of replacements.

Based on photos, it appears like bindweed has heart-shaped leaves with taller upper lobes & Morning Glory-type flowers, whereas Carolina snailseed has more ivy-shaped leaves, tiny white flowers and red berries. And obviously, the snailseed's hallmark is its somewhat "snail-shaped," namesake seeds.
http://www.soilcropandmore.info/crops/Weeds/UvaldeWeedSite/coca.htm

Interestingly, bindweed can actually help slow cancer growth (angiogenesis)... Although otherwise, I would agree that you generally wouldn't want it growing in your yard!

So, what is this "bottle trick?" :o

Here is a link that might be useful: Cancer Research - Bindweed

This post was edited by blakrab on Sat, Apr 19, 14 at 14:17

My vines send out long, shallow, underground runners, about the diameter of a pencil. They can frequently be unearthed by grasping and pulling on the vine, where it emerges from the soil. Invariably, one comes to a point where the root runner goes deeper, and breaks off. There's just no digging the rest of it up. I try to stop a couple feet from a "break point," sever the root, and insert the end into a bottle containing Roundup. I use the "super concentrate," which is 50% glyphosate. (The kind you see stacked in displays only contains 2%.) I use a solution of one part concentrate to two parts water. A runner will frequently guzzle several ounces of this mix, in a couple of days. It must work, because I will then see, in a week or so, dead vine foliage in the shrubs, often where I hadn't even noticed it. New vines just keep coming, though. They say the seeds can remain dormant for 20 years. Apart from appearances sake, I'm satisfied that simply killing the foliage is a waste of time.

PS: You might find of some interest the thread Grim Experiments I started on the Texas forum, under the "handle" whitecap2, on 4-19-12.

Ah, I see it here, not really into synthetic herbicides...but thanks. :)

But that is pretty nuts that its roots can guzzle 2.5" of fluid out of a bottle overnight!

Here is a link that might be useful: Grim Experiments

This stuff can smother a shrub, if allowed to run wild. You can control it, though, after a fashion, by feeling around for the underground root, where the vine emerges from the soil, and pulling up as much of it as you can. It is particularly exasperating in low plants like liriope, where it's difficult to get a grip on the root.

Ordinary household vinegar has been diluted to 5% acidity. I've read that 20% acidity vinegar can be obtained at feed stores. A good drink of that might set these vines back some. Destroying the foliage merely seems to encourage them.

I don't know what the plant in the OP's picture is but it isn't either Convolvulus arvensis or Calystegia sepium which are the plants generally called Bindweed. I would suggest posting it on the Name that Plant Forum to find out its correct id.

Here is a link that might be useful: Name that Plant

Blakrab,

Just a note: Round-up is not a herbicide. It is a growth stimulator that contains no poisons. It causes a plant to grow so quickly it exhausts itself and dies.

Linda