Bitterroot Restoration

Order: Apiales
Family: Araliaceae
Subfamily: Aralioideae
Genus: Hedera
Common names: Bindwood and Lovestone

Hedera (Ivy, plural Ivies)  is a genus of climbing or ground-creeping evergreen woody plants. Native to the Atlantic Islands, western, central and southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan. They are able to climb to at least 25–30 metres above the basal ground level. True ivy must not be confused with Boston Ivy and to a lesser extent Virginia creeper, both of which are climbers that can grow up buildings, but are deciduous rather than evergreen, and are quite unrelated to true ivy, both being of the grape family. It should also not be confused with cape ivy, which is in the sunflower family.

Ivies have two leaf types, with palmately lobed juvenile leaves on creeping and climbing stems, and unlobed cordate adult leaves on fertile flowering stems exposed to full sun, usually high in the crowns of trees or the top of rock faces. The juvenile and adult shoots also differ, the former being slender, flexible and scrambling or climbing with small roots to affix the shoot to the substrate (rock or tree bark), the latter thicker, self-supporting, and without roots.

Their flowers are produced in late autumn, individually small, in 3–5 cm diameter umbels, greenish-yellow, and very rich in nectar, an important late food source for bees and other insects; their fruit are small black berries ripening in late winter, and are an important food for many birds, though poisonous to humans. The seeds are dispersed by birds eating the fruit. The leaves are eaten by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera.

Ivy is a most popular houseplant. Hanging Ivies are elegant and rich looking, easy to grow, and they age gracefully. Keep an eye out for spider mite. If you catch the pest and spray early your ivy will stay healthy looking.