How to distinguish between creeper and ivy

Morphological differences

This is the most intuitive way to distinguish

ivy

Ivy has a woody stem that can be up to 3-5 meters long and has many branches. It has aerial roots. The tender branches are covered with soft hairs and are rusty and scaly. The leaves are leathery and alternate. The umbels are solitary or 2-7 terminal, yellow-white or green-white. The fruit is spherical, berry-like, yellow or red. The flowering period is May to August and the fruiting period is September to November.

Ivy

The shape of creeper is similar to wild grape vine, and the vine stem can be up to 18 meters long. The cymes are often borne on short branches between two leaves, and are not obvious in clusters. The berries are yellow-green or purple-black, mostly bisexual, monoecious. The berries are small spherical, blue-black when ripe, and covered with white powder. The flowering period is June, and the fruiting period is September-October. The most obvious feature is that ivy has a strong climbing ability.

Habit Difference

We can also tell who is who from the environment in which they grew up.

ivy

Ivy is highly adaptable to the environment, prefers a relatively cool climate, has strong cold resistance, and is not strict about light requirements. It can grow anywhere, usually in a shady and humid environment.

Ivy

Ivy has strong adaptability and prefers shady and humid environment, but is not afraid of strong light. It is cold-resistant, drought-resistant and barren-resistant. It can remain semi-evergreen or evergreen in winter in the south of the warm temperate zone. It is resistant to pruning and afraid of waterlogging. They mostly grow in places with fertile soil and will grow attached to buildings.

Distribution difference

There are some differences in the distribution of creeper and ivy. You can check where you see them.

ivy

Ivy is native to Europe, Asia, North Africa and other places, and is distributed in Central my country, East China, Southwest China, Gansu and Shaanxi.

Ivy

Parthenocissus tricuspidata is native to eastern Asia, the Himalayas and North America. It is distributed in Henan, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Fujian in China.

Distinction between families and genus

ivy

Ivy is an evergreen woody vine belonging to the plant kingdom, angiosperms, dicots, rosida, Apiaceae, Araliaceae, Polygonaceae, and genus Hedera.

Ivy

Parthenocissus tricuspidata is a perennial large deciduous woody vine belonging to the plant kingdom, angiosperms, dicots, rosida, vitiales, vitaceae, and genus Parthenocissus.

Another point that can be seen from the difference in families is that ivy is an evergreen plant, while creeper is deciduous.