Thanks to everyone who responded. I am 100% it is not Virginia Creeper. We have VC here and while it can be a bit of a nuisance, it grows nowhere near as fast as this stuff. VC's more mature vines are also somewhat "woody", but this vine is very tender everywhere. After ya'll pointed out the similarities between this vine and VC I googled "Vitaceae" (VC family), but found nothing of any use. This vine has yet to make any berries, fwiw. I feel sure this stuff will get killed back with the first frost we get, but I'm sure that when it warms back up in the spring, it will come back from it's roots and continue its rapid growth. It's roots are tuber like, and I'm guessing that if someone were to try and till these vines up, they would have a bigger problem than before. I think I'll post this in the "weeds" section of this site and see if anyone knows over there. Thanks again for everyone's input.

i am not researching it... but most of this stuff.. needs its seed to be on the soil surface to sprout in spring... and that is why we mulch ... to bury the seed .. and then learn how to garden.. without pulling soil up thru the mulch... you already lost this years battle.. because it went to seed ... there is always next year.. and next year.. kill it in spring .... before it even flowers ... personally .. i use generic roundup on my 5 acres ... ken ps: you cracked me up with weighing your weedings ... thx for todays chuckle ....

The vine is likely a type of smilax. There are several kinds and one of the them (at least) does have thorns going right into the ground. This kind of smilax grows from a knotty tuber in the ground. One day when the ground is moist, try to dig it out. But it can be deep. Or cut it off and spray it with brush killer. If it sprouts back, just keep nipping it off and it may run out of energy one day. These guys are tough. English ivy is really aggressive. Get it off the trees or it will just keep going (when it is climbing trees is when it produces flowers and fruit). Start by cutting the vines at the base of the tree and spray the cut ends (that go into the ground) with brush killer (not just regular round up). Redtip is the common name for Photinia, a common shrub/tree that was used more in the past. It can get big. Good luck and welcome! Here is a link that might be useful: Smilax or greenbrier

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.