Here are five things you may not have known about the ivy in your Christmas wreath.
Check if the berries on your Christmas wreath and table decorations are poisonous.
One: ivy is mildly poisonous; keep the ivy berries in your table decoration away from the children!
Two: it can climb as high as ninety feet if it has a good support.
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[1] Immature leaves, dark and variegated; [2] oval, bright green mature leaves, with mildly poisonous berries.
Three: ivy has two kinds of leaves: lobed, dark green and sometimes variegated leaves on an immature plant and oval, bright green leaves when the plant is matured.
Four: ivy also has two kinds of roots: subterranean roots, which absorb water and nutrients from the soil, and adventitious or aerial roots which attach the plant to a surface as it climbs.
An ivy bee photographed in the park feeding on ivy flowers.
Five: the ivy bee, Colletes hederae, is completely dependent on ivy flowers, timing its entire life cycle around ivy flowering. Here is a link to the ivy bees identified in the park.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 