Hedera helix L.

English Ivy; Common Ivy

Vine

Perennial

Vascular

Common Ivy is an introduced woody vine in the Ginseng family (Araliaceae). It is native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. In Alabama it is commonly cultivated and has escaped statewide. Common Ivy grows around old home sites, in disturbed forests, on roadside banks, and in urban woodlands. It is a perennial, evergreen, woody vine that grows as a trailing groundcover or attached to rocks, walls, or trees by aerial roots. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, thick in texture, and occur in two forms. On juvenile and non-climbing stems the leaves are generally 3-5 lobed. On older climbing, erect, or fruiting stems the leaves are unlobed. Leaves are ovate to lanceolate in outline, shiny dark green above with pale veins and lighter green below, with peltate or stellate hairs when young, glabrate with age. Flowers are produced in terminal umbels from lateral branches of climbing stems. Flowers are small and inconspicuous with 5 green sepals and 5 greenish-white petals. The fruit is a purple-black drupe. Material referred to as “Common Ivy” or “English Ivy” consists of a polyploid complex of entities that have variously been treated as species, subspecies, or varieties. In addition, numerous horticultural forms and cultivars exist. Common Ivy is listed as a Category 1 invasive species in Alabama by the Alabama Invasive Plant Council.—A. Diamond

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Not Native

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