What is English ivy?

English ivy is an evergreen woody vine from Europe that was planted around Pennsylvania homes for generations as a ground cover and wall climber. Learning English ivy identification is the first step to keeping it from taking over, because the same toughness that made it popular lets it escape into yards and woods.

On the ground it forms dense mats that smother wildflowers and tree seedlings. On trees it climbs into the canopy, adding weight and shading the tree’s own leaves. Once it reaches the top and matures, it flowers and makes berries that birds carry to new spots. PA DCNR lists it as an invasive plant, though it isn’t on the state’s noxious weed list.

English ivy identification: what to look for

English ivy changes shape as it grows, which confuses a lot of people. It has two forms on the same plant.

• Creeping (young) form: thick, glossy, dark green leaves with three to five pointed lobes and pale veins. This form spreads across the ground and up walls and trunks but doesn’t flower.
• Mature (adult) form: once a vine climbs high enough, it puts out bushy branches with unlobed, oval to diamond-shaped leaves. Only these branches flower and fruit.
• Stems: woody, with short, fuzzy rootlets that grip bark, brick, stone and siding. Old vines on trees can get as thick as your wrist.
• Flowers and fruit: round clusters of small greenish flowers in fall, followed by dark blue-black berries that ripen over winter and spring.

It stays green all year, so winter is the easiest time to see how far it has spread.

Where it grows in Pennsylvania

Ivy is most common around older homes, cemeteries, parks and town woodlots, anywhere it was planted decades ago. In central PA you’ll often find it spreading from an old foundation planting into a shady side yard or down a wooded slope toward a creek.

It thrives in shade and moist soil, which is why it does so well on wooded lots. It can damage loose mortar, gutters, painted surfaces and siding when it climbs a house. On trees, the weight of mature vines can make limbs and whole trees more likely to fail in wind, ice or heavy snow.

English ivy look-alikes

Creeping Charlie, also called ground ivy, gets confused with English ivy because of the name. It’s a soft lawn weed with round, scalloped leaves, square stems and a minty smell, and it isn’t woody.

Poison ivy also climbs trees with hairy vines, but it has three leaflets per leaf and loses its leaves in fall. Wintercreeper is another evergreen climber, but its leaves are oval, toothed and paired. Native Virginia creeper has five leaflets and turns red in autumn.

How to get rid of English ivy

Plan on this being a project, not an afternoon. Ivy roots wherever it touches soil, and pieces left behind regrow.

Free your trees first. Cut every vine around the trunk at about shoulder height and again near the ground, then peel the ivy off the bottom few feet of trunk and clear a ring of a few feet around the base. Leave the upper vines in place; they’ll die and dry out over the next few months. Pulling them down can damage the bark and drop debris on you.

Pull the ground cover. Ivy pulls best when the soil is moist. Roll it up like a carpet, cutting as you go, and bag it or pile it on a tarp where it can’t reroot. Don’t put it in a compost pile you’ll spread later.

Cultural control. After clearing, cover bare ground with a thick layer of mulch or replant with native ground covers or shrubs so the ivy doesn’t fill back in.

Chemical control. Older ivy leaves have a waxy coating that sheds spray. Treat regrowth in spring when new leaves are soft, or treat freshly cut stems. Extension services list glyphosate and triclopyr for ivy. Keep spray off tree bark and desirable plants.

• Read and follow the product label. The label is the law, and it tells you which sites and methods are allowed.
• Applying herbicide for hire in Pennsylvania requires a PA Department of Agriculture pesticide applicator certification, so large wooded areas belong with a licensed vegetation-management company.

Keeping it from coming back

Check the cleared area every few months for the first couple of years and pull any new sprigs while they’re small. Keep tree trunks clear, and don’t let vines start back up the walls of the house.

Replanting is what really closes the door. Native ground covers, ferns or a well-mulched shrub bed give the ground something better to do than grow ivy. If a big infestation has left trees damaged or leaning, have them looked at before the next storm.

Questions we get about english ivy

Similar weeds

Japanese HoneysuckleLonicera japonicaOriental BittersweetCelastrus orbiculatusPorcelain BerryAmpelopsis glandulosa