Hedera helix L.

Hedera: Ancient Latin name for ivy

helix: twist, turn, and Greek common name of the plant

Habit: Evergreen climbing shrub that attaches to the substrate by means of dense clusters of sticky adventitious rootlets.

Leaves: alternate, persistent, 4-7 x 4-7 cm, simple, petiolate; blade with a broadly ovate outline, palmately lobed with 3-5 lobes; base often cordate, with stellate trichomes abaxially; leaves of flowering branches ovate, elliptic or rhombic, entire, usually with a cuneate base.

Flowers: hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, epigynous, small, arranged in umbels; sepals 5, very small and inconspicuous; petals 5, yellow-green, 3-4 mm long; stamens 5, free; gynoecium syncarpous, 3-5 carpellate, with an inferior ovary.

Fruit: subglobose black berry 7-8 mm in diam.

It flowers at the end of summer or in autumn (although only very old specimens); fruits mature in spring.

Native to the broad Eurasian region.

It is widely cultivated as an ornamental to cover walls, fences and the ground, especially in shady areas. The whole plant is toxic, particularly its fruits, because they contain hederin, a saponin. However, the leaves have medicinal properties and are used as an expectorant and antispasmodic agent.

It is easily propagated from cuttings.