Species
+

Hedera helix L.

Common Ivy, English Ivy, English Ivy, Common Ivy, European Ivy, Ivy, Needlepoint Ivy, Ripple Ivy, Ivy

Climate known 47 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Hedera helix, simply ivy, or common ivy, English ivy, European ivy, King's choice ivy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Araliaceae. It is native to most of Europe and parts of western Asia. Ivy is a clinging evergreen vine that grows on tree trunks, walls, and fences in gardens, waste spaces, and wild habitats. Ivy is common as an ornamental plant, but escaped plants become naturalised outside its native range. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Hedera helix”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Hedera

Hedera, commonly called ivy, is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan and Taiwan. Several species are cultivated as climbing ornamentals, and the name ivy especially denotes common ivy, known in North America as "English ivy", which is frequently planted to clothe brick walls.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hedera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araliaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland +34
Wild records
567 in range· 271 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
800mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 77 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 800 mm a year, wettest October at 77 mm, driest February at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hedera helix subsp. leucoclina F.Cayet, Coulomb & M.Grégoire, 2022; Hedera helix subsp. pavonii F.Cayet, Coulomb & M.Grégoire, 2022; Hedera helix subsp. vulgaris DC.; Hedera helix var. aurantica Hibberd; Hedera helix var. palmatoaurea Lawr. and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (576 mm of 800 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 16.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 800 mm a year, wettest October at 77 mm, driest February at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

800 mm a year at the habitat, 576 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 77 mm, driest February at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 603 mm to 1285 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -9.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -9.6 °C, the absolute minimum -19.8 °C, about 69 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.8 °C to 2.5 °C), warmest day 22.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 4 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 800 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 403 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -19.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°frost26.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-19.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 5–35RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 403 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / 2–86 / 3–99 / 6–1213 / 10–1518 / 14–2020 / 17–2423 / 19–2722 / 19–2618 / 16–2214 / 12–178 / 7–125 / 3–9
Night °C-1 / -5–3-1 / -4–22 / -1–44 / 3–69 / 7–1112 / 10–1414 / 12–1714 / 12–1711 / 9–147 / 6–103 / 1–60 / -3–3
Rain mm60 / 34–10849 / 34–8760 / 40–9855 / 35–9667 / 49–11472 / 49–11772 / 42–11674 / 51–12072 / 52–11377 / 46–14072 / 49–13270 / 47–124
DLI6 / 4–1211 / 8–1818 / 16–2628 / 25–3334 / 32–3835 / 32–4135 / 32–4330 / 26–3620 / 18–2813 / 10–197 / 5–135 / 3–10
RH %66 / 61–7064 / 59–6762 / 58–6559 / 57–6259 / 57–6260 / 57–6259 / 56–6360 / 56–6362 / 59–6464 / 62–6667 / 62–6967 / 61–70

Each figure is the median across the 403 grid cells holding the 557 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 718:3842 (54.075, 12.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -19.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 403 distinct grid cells holding the 557 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 718:3842 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 54.00_11.875, lapse-corrected -7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 19 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, North Caucasus, East Aegean Is., Turkey· introduced: Morocco, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, Alaska, British Columbia, Ontario, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“climber” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker53.326, -2.956 · in the densest population, 108 records (19% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 567 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 271 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 28 km away. 202 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 567 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hedera helixHedera helixHedera helixHedera helixHedera helixHedera helixHedera helixHedera helix

Photographs: (c) Dave Richardson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Roman A. Lagazyuk (Роман А. Лагазюк), some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Hedera helix, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Photoinhibition and Zeaxanthin Formation in Intact Leaves
Barbara Demmig, Klaus Winter, Almuth Krüger, Franz–Christian Czygan (1987) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Deposition of Particulate Matter of Different Size Fractions on Leaf Surfaces and in Waxes of Urban Forest Species
K. Dzierżanowski, Robert Popek, H. Gawrońska, Arne Sæbø (2011) · International Journal of Phytoremediation
MiRNA Control of Vegetative Phase Change in Trees
Jiawei Wang, Mee Yeon Park, Ling-Jian Wang, Yeonjong Koo (2011) · PLoS Genetics
Fungal Planet description sheets: 214–280
P.W. Crous, Roger G. Shivas, William Quaedvlieg, Michelle van der Bank (2014) · Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
Multiple meanings and modes: on the many ways to be a generalist flower
Jeff Ollerton, Ant Killick, Ellen Lamborn, Stella Watts (2007) · Taxon
Phenology of farmland floral resources reveals seasonal gaps in nectar availability for bumblebees
Thomas P. Timberlake, Ian P. Vaughan, Jane Memmott (2019) · Journal of Applied Ecology
Taxus baccata L.
Peter A. Thomas, Anthony Polwart (2003) · Journal of Ecology
COVID-19: Is There Evidence for the Use of Herbal Medicines as Adjuvant Symptomatic Therapy?
Dâmaris Silveira, Jose Maria Prieto-Garcia, Fábio Boylan, Omar Eduardo Sánchez Estrada (2020) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
The past ecology of Abies alba provides new perspectives on future responses of silver fir forests to global warming
Willy Tinner, Danièle Colombaroli, Oliver Heiri, Paul D. Henne (2013) · Ecological Monographs
Do stomata respond to relative humidity?
Pedro J. Aphalo, P. G. Jarvis (1991) · Plant Cell & Environment

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Hedera 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.