Coccinia Grandis: Friend or "Noxious weed"?

Coccinia Grandis (Ivy Gourd) seems to be beneficial for me as a ground cover and also a cucumber that can stand the hot South Florida sun, as it is a tropical perennial.

"Various preparations of the roots, stems, and leaves have been mentioned in indigenous systems of medicine as being efficacious in the treatment of skin diseases, bronchial catarrh, bronchitis and diabetes." http://www.eol.org/pages/584421

However, it also appears that this is on the noxious weeds list : "Regarded as very invasive and is on the Hawaii State Noxious Weed List, Ivy gourd can grow up to four inches per day.Coccinia grows in dense blankets that shade other plants from sunlight and high-jacking nutrients." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinia_grandis.

Any one have any thoughts or ideas on this plant that I would like to include in my EFG?

I plan to plant this as an edible ground cover. If I observe that it is causing any issues with other plants I will do one of two things:
A: Rip it up, compost it, and throw moldy hay over it.
B: Hot compost right on top of the plant.

boiling water will kill it too.

Looks like it has a lot of uses. You can eat young shoots and leaves too. If you trim it, you have to pick up the trimmings, or they root.

I'm sure st. augustine and bermuda grass could be considered invasive too. Guess things just depend on perspective / the beholder.

Figure out what around you allows it to spread, and be sure to pick all of the fruit and pick up any trimmings, and looks like it will be alright.

Seems better than english ivy and kudzu

Well, lots of great plants are listed as noxious weeds. Take purslane, for example. It has the most omega-3s of any green vegetable, is drought tolerant, self seeds, thrives in poor soil, and tastes great. It could become invasive in some situations, but 'miracle plant' is a better description than 'weed'. After all, "weeds are those poor plants whose uses have not yet been discovered".

still learning, but it seems a lot of weeds are useful for several things and appear to have been put here by the creator to bring soil back to balance. was told their is a weed for everything. compacted, loose, minerals, etc. a lot of the information is mentioned on mainstream websites, though they tend to shy away from any use of such useful information.

Well, lots of great plants are listed as noxious weeds. Take purslane, for example. It has the most omega-3s of any green vegetable, is drought tolerant, self seeds, thrives in poor soil, and tastes great. It could become invasive in some situations, but 'miracle plant' is a better description than 'weed'. After all, "weeds are those poor plants whose uses have not yet been discovered".

i love purslane, i would also put the great dandelion in that same boat as well. such a powerhouse of a plant, wasted on a daily basis by gallons and gallons of poison.

The hallmark of an invasive species is that it has no natural controls.  When a plant or animal exists where it first developed, there will be animals, insects, parasites, diseases,  that serve to control the species and make it fit into the local ecosystem. 

When we take a species and put it into an environment where it has no natural controls it can go crazy.

Think wild hogs in Texas, Bighead Carp in the Mississippi, sea lampry in the Great Lakes, etc.