Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Hedera helix
Common name
English ivy, Ivy
Family
Araliaceae
Where found
Forest, woodland, roadsides, gardens, pine plantations, stream banks, and wetlands. ACT. Coast, ranges and tablelands, mainly north from Jervis Bay. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced woody climber to 20 m or more high or a creeper, occasionally becoming shrubby with age, usually with aerial roots along the stems. Fruit fleshy. Young stems hairless or with minute stellate to peltate hairs. Leaves alternating up the stems, 2.5–11 cm long, 30-100 mm wide, hairless or nearly so, upper surface slightly darker green and glossier than the lower surface, sometimes variegated with white or cream. Leaves on non-flowering shoots shallowly 3–5-lobed. Leaves on flowering shoots entire and narrower. Flowers with 5 petals each 3-5 mm long, sometimes united at the tips, greenish or yellowish green. Flowers in large compound clusters. Flowers chiefly summer. Fruit dull blue or bluish purple to black, rounded, 5-10 mm in diameter. Flowers mainly summer.
Pest plant ACT.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Hedera~helix (accessed 19 January, 2021)
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