Home Garden
# Home & Garden >> Plants, Flowers & Herbs >> Outdoor Growing

Tree Circumference & the Size of Ivy Leaves

First brought to North American by Europeans for use as an evergreen groundcover in gardens, English ivy (Hedera helix) proves it's a tough plant that can survive in unmanaged landscapes. This ivy grows either as a sprawling matrix of stems across the ground, or will clasp onto vertical surfaces and grow upward to heights of 20 to 90 feet. The size, age or circumference of the tree on which the ivy grows is independent of the leaf size and growth stage of the English ivy.

  1. Ivy Features

    • When young, or in a juvenile form, English ivy produces smaller leaves 1 to 4 inches in diameter. They have a distinctive, decorative shape, usually with five bluntly pointed lobes. A juvenile-form English ivy will grow on a tree trunk of any circumference. The ivy clasps, or fuses, onto the trunk with aerial roots. When old enough, English ivy enters its adult form, which causes horizontal branches, larger leaves with a rounded or diamondlike shape, and it produces flowers and black berries.

    The Host Tree

    • The species or size of the tree has no effect on the growth or success of the English ivy vine. Whether the tree is young with a small circumference trunk or a larger, tall tree with more massive trunk, the ivy will clasp onto the tree in an effort to grow toward sunlight. English ivy reaches its adult form only after several years of growth, and therefore is not typically seen on smaller, younger trees. Gardeners plant juvenile ivy plants that then grow, clambering over whatever to receive ample light for photosynthesis. Planting an ivy at the base of a small tree results in the ivy soon growing upward and cloaking the tree's foliage, weakening it and killing it. The ivy remains, using the dead tree's canopy as a support.

    Leaf Size

    • Larger leaves form on English ivy if the plant is healthy, even if it is still in its juvenile form. The tree plays no role in the ivy's leaf production or leaf size. In dimmer light levels -- such as in a woodland -- a juvenile English ivy may produce some rather large lobed leaves simply from a physiological perspective: larger, thinner leaves receive more light energy than smaller leaves. The growing conditions dictate what size leaves develop on the juvenile ivy, not the size or circumference of the tree.

    Pruning Effects

    • If English ivy is constantly pruned back, the new growth that develops continues to be the juvenile form. Trimming tall or errant vines on small or large tree trunks results in rejuvenation, with new vines later again crawling up the tree trunk. The new foliage on fresh stem growth is small and dense. Pruning prevents the ivy from subsequently developing adult foliage, along with flowers and fruits high up in the tree.

Previous:

Next:

Outdoor Growing
  1. The Leaves Are Dying on My Indoor Trees
  2. The Mature Size of a Black Hills Spruce
  3. Are Leaves the Responsibility of the Property or Tree Owner?
  4. Protrusions Growing From the Leaves on a Tree
  5. How Leaves Fall From the Tree
  6. Leaves of the Horse Chestnut Tree
  7. The Identification of Types of Oak Tree Leaves
  8. The Size of a Palm Tree
  9. The Size of the Pixie Mandarin Citrus Tree
  10. How to Measure the Health of Devil's Ivy
  11. The Effect of Temperature on the Leaves of a Maple Tree
  12. Bumps on the Leaves of Pecan Trees

Home Garden © https://www.98905.com