Green hearts beat

by Felicia Tica

Title

Green hearts beat

Artist

Felicia Tica

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

I saw these two little Hedera hearts in the middle of the town, on a concrete wall. I was thinking that they are so cute and significant as two little green hearts!

Hedera helix (common ivy, English ivy, European ivy, or just ivy. Hedera is the generic term for ivy. The specific epithet helix derives from Ancient Greek "twist, turn") is a species of flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to most of Europe and western Asia. A rampant, clinging evergreen vine, it is a familiar sight in gardens, waste spaces, on ho use walls, tree trunks and in wild areas across its native habitat. It is labeled as an invasive species in a number of areas where it has been introduced. Hedera helix is an evergreen climbing plant, growing to 20-30 m (66-98 ft) high where suitable surfaces (trees, cliffs, walls) are available, and also growing as groundcover where there are no vertical surfaces. It climbs by means of aerial rootlets with matted pads which cling strongly to the substrate.
The leaves are alternate, 50-100 mm long, with a 15-20 mm petiole; they are of two types, with palmately five-lobed juvenile leaves on creeping and climbing stems, and unlobed cordate adult leaves on fertile flowering stems exposed to full sun, usually high in the crowns of trees or the top of rock faces.
The flowers are produced from late summer until late autumn, individually small, in 3-5 cm diameter umbels, greenish-yellow, and very rich in nectar, an important late autumn food source for bees and other insects.
The fruit are purple-black to orange-yellow berries 6-8 mm diameter, ripening in late winter, and are an important food for many birds. There are one to five seeds in each berry, which are dispersed by birds eating the berries. here are three subspecies:
Hedera helix subsp. helix.
Central, northern and western Europe. Plants without rhizomes. Purple-black ripe fruit.
Hedera helix subsp. poetarum Nyman (syn. Hedera chrysocarpa Walsh). Grows in Southeast Europe and southwest Asia (Italy, Balkans, Turkey). Plants without rhizomes. Orange-yellow ripe fruit.
Hedera helix subsp. rhizomatifera McAllister. Southeast Spain. Plants rhizomatiferous. Purple-black ripe fruit.
The closely related species Hedera canariensis and Hedera hibernica are also often treated as subspecies of H. helix, though they differ in chromosome number so do not hybridise readily. H. helix can be best distinguished by the shape and colour of its leaf trichomes, usually smaller and slightly more deeply lobed leaves and somewhat less vigorous growth, though identification is often not easy.

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January 26th, 2014

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