Common Ivy - Hedera helix

Alternative names
Ivy
Description

A woody climber to 30 metres, though often less. Leaves deep shiny green and leathery, often with paler veins, those of immature plant often 3 to 5 lobed, those of mature flowering branches are heart shaped or elliptical and all untoothed. Flowers yellowish-green with yellow anthers, 7 to 9 mm, borne in small, rather dense umbels, petals eventually reflexed. Fruit globose, 6 to 8 mm dull black when ripe in bunches.

Identification difficulty
Habitat

Woodland, hedgerows, walls and old buildings.

When to see it

September to November.

Life History

Evergreen.

UK Status

Very common throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 591 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Ivy
Species group:
Trees, Shrubs & Climbers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Apiales
Family:
Araliaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
731
First record:
11/05/1992 (John Mousley;Steve Grover)
Last record:
04/05/2024 (Carter, Robert)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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Latest images

Latest records

Photo of the association

Boeremia hedericola

Boeremia hedericola is a Coelomycetes fungus which produces large distinctive spots on the leaves of various Ivy species (Araliaceae). It only produces asexual spores from the tiny brown pycnidia (fruiting bodies).