Weed Identification: English Ivy

Despite being a popular indoor house plant, English Ivy is considered a weed on the Mornington Peninsula. The same attributes that have led to its popularity (ability to grow in many environments, hardy & can thrive in both the sun and the shade) are the same attributes that have allowed it to be such a dominant weed. English Ivy can be identified by their waxy, 3-5 lobed leaves with lighter coloured veins, it also has clusters of flowers at the tips of its branches that produce purple/black fruit. It will use a support plant to climb as high as possible before producing and spreading seed. English Ivy will eventually kill the support plant by smothering, preventing bark shed, excluding light, or simply causing the tree to collapse.

A variety of techniques can be used to manage English Ivy; removing by hand (easiest and best method for small plants), spraying with a registered herbicide (which can be difficult to be effective due to the waxy nature of the leaves), or lastly cutting and painting (cutting the plant close to the soil and applying a registered herbicide) is the best practice for large mature plants. If you have English Ivy growing on your property and would like to replace it with an Indigenous alternative, we recommend Bower Spinach (Tetragonia implexicoma ) and Old Man’s Beard (Clematis aristata). The Shire Nurseries are a great place to buy Indigenous plants to fill your gardens with!