English Ivy and Irish Ivy

canada goose store Part of the problem is that ivies are difficult to identify but you can start with your nose. Crush Irish ivy, Hedera hibernica, and a honeyed scent rises. It’s a fragrance that many a weed warrior has inhaled while ripping the invasive plant from local parks, where it blankets the ground and coats the trees. It may look similar to English ivy, Hedera helix, the one that gets fingered on many a least wanted list, but Irish ivy is fundamentally different. (See another identification tip, right.) canada goose store

Like us humans, H. helix is diploid; its somatic cells harbor two sets of chromosomes. But H. hibernica is a tetraploid freak, with four sets of chromosomes, explains Arthur O. Tucker, a research professor at Delaware State University. “This is usually canada goose uk sale black friday the noxious weed.” But not always. “In some places it is H. hibernica, but in other places it is H. helix,” he says, citing a survey of herbarium curators. “The invasive canada goose outlet buffalo potential also depends on the cultivar, so it is impossible to make generalizations.”

cheap canada goose uk “It isn’t fair to attack all 500 cultivars of English ivy as invasive because of Irish ivy,” says Suzanne Pierot, president canada goose outlet factory of the American Ivy Society. The organization challenges the widely held assertions that any ivy covering the ground will exclude native plants or that climbing canada goose factory outlet winnipeg ivy canada goose outlet will engulf and suppress trees and make them easier for winds to topple. The group says that ivy can provide a nitrogen boost to the forest floor and can protect trees from beetle attacks and bark damage from dramatic swings in winter temperatures. cheap canada goose uk

canada goose coats on sale However, people working to restore native plant communities say that the weed’s detriments far outweigh any benefits. Invasive ivy has become a target for eradication, although efforts canada goose coats on sale

have failed canada goose down jacket uk in state legislatures to ban Hedera helix in Maryland and “English ivy” in Virginia. In Oregon, however, the state’s department of agriculture has banned the sale, transport and propagation of both H. helix and”I’m not in favor af a ban against Hedera,” says Richard Davis, founder of the Ivy Farm, near Locustville, Va. “Although it wouldn’t cause us great financial canada goose outlet 80 off pain, it’s the principle of a ban that I’m opposed to.” cheap canada goose He cautions, “You need be careful of lumping Hedera. These pretty little variegated ivies that you can grow in a pot on your deck aren’t going to go invasive.”

Although Davis maintains one of the largest collections of ivy in the country, offering 100 cultivars of several species of Hedera, his nursery sells much more than just ivy. “If we had to live off of what we made selling Hedera,” he jokes, “we’d be eating ivy.”

canadian goose jacket “Hedera is a fascinating genus,” says Sarah Reichard, director of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens in Seattle. “It flowers in fall and fruits in spring, which is opposite of almost every species, but brilliant for an invader it provides fruits for birds in the spring when their other resources are depleted, thereby getting the fruits dispersed away from the mother plant. It mostly only reproduces when growing vertically on trees or walls getting the fruits up where the birds are.” canadian goose jacket

buy canada goose jacket cheap Reichard grew up in North Carolina, so she is familiar with aggressive East Coast ivy. But to really appreciate ivy’s invasive potential, she says, “you need to come out here to western Washington, where it is devouring urban forests.” Reichard helped analyze the genetics of invasive ivy in Washington https://www.fabulalitera.de state: 15 percent of the infestations were English ivy, buy canada goose jacket cheap

uk canada goose outlet 85 percent were Irish ivy. uk canada goose outlet

Canada Goose Online Sources: Watsonia, Ivy Journal, American Nurseryman, Biological Invasions, John Peter Thompson, National Park Service Canada Goose Online

Check your ivy

cheap Canada Goose Grab a 10 power hand lens and look closely at young ivy stems and under young leaves, where you may find a white fuzz comprised of individual trichomes cheap Canada Goose.