Hedera canariensis Willd.   Araliaceae (Ginseng Family)   Azores, Canary Islands, W. Africa   Algerian Ivy

                                        March Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Evergreen shrub, twigs slender, dull burgundy-red, becoming glabrous; aerial rootlets few and remote; juvenile lvs. glossy, pale green, mostly triangular, usually shallowly 3-lobed, alternate; fls. bisexual, greenish, in umbels assembled in terminal panicles or racemes; calyx 5 toothed; petals 5; stamens 5; ovary 5-celled, styles joined into 1; fruit a 3-5 seeded small berry, black.

Habitat:  Escape from cultivation.

Name:  Latin, hedera, ivy.  Canari, the Canary Islands.  (Jaeger 116,291).

General:  Uncommon in the study area, having been found only once at the marsh level but once or twice more at the top of the bluff at East Bluff and once at 23rd St..  The marsh level location was on the path from Northstar Beach to Mariners Dr.; this is where the photos were taken. (my comments).    Requires more moisture than English Ivy.  (Sunset Editors 319).     A half dozen or less species of evergreen shrubs native Europe to Japan.  (Bailey 746).

Text Ref:  Bailey 746.

Photo Ref: Mar 5-April 1 85 # 7,9; April-May 94 # 6.

Identity: by R. De Ruff.  

First Found:  March 1985.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 134.

No plant specimen.

Last edit 11/28/03.

                                             March Photo