Britain's only native evergreen woody climber, gripping by short adventitious roots rather than tendrils
Common ivy — it is not a parasite and takes nothing from the tree.
Nature · Ferns, grasses & other plants
Common ivy
Evergreen climber · to 30 m
Hedera helix — Araliaceae
Common ivy is Britain's only native evergreen woody climber, hauling itself up trees, walls and cliffs on short adventitious roots that grip rather than penetrate. It is not a parasite and takes nothing from its host. Two quite different leaf shapes appear on the same plant: the familiar lobed juvenile leaves of climbing shoots, and the plain oval leaves of the flowering shoots at the top. Because it flowers in late autumn it is the last great nectar bar of the year.
How to spot them
- ▸Dark glossy evergreen leaves; climbing shoots have three to five triangular lobes with pale veins
- ▸Flowering shoots high up bear quite different unlobed, diamond-to-oval leaves
- ▸Climbs by short brown adventitious root-hairs pressed flat to bark or stone, with no tendrils or twining
- ▸Domed umbels of small yellow-green flowers in September to November, loud with wasps and hoverflies
- ▸Clusters of matt black berries ripening late winter into early spring
How to know it
It bears two quite different leaf shapes on the same plant — lobed on climbing shoots, unlobed on flowering ones
Common ivy; the phenomenon is heterophylly.
Flowering in October and November, it is the last major nectar and pollen source of the British year
Common ivy — hence the autumn crowds of wasps, hoverflies and red admirals.
A solitary bee named for it was first recorded in Britain in 2001 and has spread rapidly north since
Common ivy; the bee is Colletes hederae, the ivy bee.
Its black berries ripen in late winter, feeding blackbirds, thrushes and woodpigeons in the hungry gap
Common ivy.
The second brood of the holly blue butterfly lays on its flower buds, the spring brood on holly
Common ivy.
Its genus gave the classical wreath of Bacchus and Dionysus, and the epithet means 'twisted'
Hedera helix.
Quick-fire facts
- •Britain's only native evergreen woody climber, and a member of the ivy family Araliaceae, alongside ginseng
- •It is not parasitic: the aerial rootlets grip the surface and do not draw sap from the tree
- •Heterophylly — the lobed juvenile and unlobed adult leaves — is so marked that the two were once thought different plants
- •Flowers September to November and fruits in late winter, filling a gap when almost nothing else does
- •The ivy bee, Colletes hederae, was first recorded in Britain in Dorset in 2001 and has since spread widely
- •Heavy ivy can add windage and weight to an already failing tree, and can hide defects, but it does not itself kill healthy ones
- •helix is Greek for a spiral or twist; ivy was sacred to Dionysus (Bacchus), whose wreath and thyrsus it wreathed
- •Berries, leaves and sap are toxic to people, and the sap causes contact dermatitis in some
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Ivy (Hedera helix)