Arnold Zwicky's Blog

From Nathan Sanders on Facebook on 10/26:

(#1) [NS:] I love when ivy changes colours! — at University of Toronto.

— AZ to NS: That is indeed lovely. It’s Parthenocissus tricuspidata, so-called “Boston ivy”, a vining plant in the grape family closely related to Virginia creeper, and not related at all to English, or common, ivy, Hedera helix (which I have growing all over my little patio). English ivy is evergreen; Boston ivy is deciduous, its leaves turning color gorgeously in the fall before dropping off.

But Boston ivy (an American native) resembles English ivy (a European native) in its growth habits — vigorously climbing and clinging to all sorts of surfaces) and in appearance (with palmate leaves — but mostly 3-lobed for Boston ivy, mostly 5-lobed for English ivy):

(#2) Boston ivy leaves, just starting to turn color (from the Amazon site)

(#3) English ivy leave, deep green all year long (from the Plants Market site)

The vertical surfaces on my patio are an extravaganza of English ivy. Meanwhile, just aound the corner from my house, there’s a wall covered in Boston ivy, much as in Nathan’s photo.

This entry was posted on October 28, 2024 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Language and plants, Names, Seasons, Taxonomic vs. common. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.