Hedera azorica

Hedera azorica is a species of Ivy (genus Hedera) which is native to the Atlantic coast in Azores Islands. Its common name is Ivy. It is an evergreen climbing plant, growing to 20–30 m high where suitable surfaces are available, and grows as ground cover where there are no vertical surfaces. It climbs by means of aerial rootlets which cling to the substrate.

Ecology

The plant has an attractive and elegant aspect. It is quite common in Azores islands and lives in slopes rock, soil, trunks of trees especially in Laurel forest of Barbusano. The natural habitat is forest or dense bush which are cloud-covered for much of the year, where the dense moisture from the sea or ocean, is precipitated by the action of the relief, causing it to condense part of the moisture that falls as rain or fog, creating a habitat tropical or subtropical especially cool, saturated with moisture in the air and soil, with no seasonal changes, wetter climate, annual oscillation of the temperature moderated by the proximity of the ocean.

The species has great differences from island to island. Very plentiful on the rocky slopes of the Fire Lake (Lagoa das Fogo), Sao Miguel Island, Azores. It is a woody climber shrub or bush perennial, which climbs by means of aerial rootlets which cling to the substrate. It grows 20–30 m high where suitable surfaces (trees, cliffs, walls) are available, and also growing as ground cover where there are no vertical surfaces.

Stems are green. The leaves are large, alternate, and are of two types: palmately 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).

Flowers are in small umbels, tight and erect, with a long peduncle. The fruits are small, globular, and black when ripe.

The plant has been cultivated in gardens and used in floral arrangements.