Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘This woody climber haunts low moist grounds, well supplied with trees or bushes, often making the bodies of elm trees grandly picturesque by its dense green covering of their trunks, or hanging in festoons from blasted trees, and covering rocks and stumps with its dense verdure, it renders beautiful everything it clings to, while after the first frosts its vividly brilliant coloring makes one of the most striking points in an autumn landscape.  It opens its yellowish green flowers, few at a time, in July; the berries being ripe in October.  The Virginian Creeper is dreaded by many, in its wild state, when without support, from its often being taken for poison ivy, to which, however, it bears no resemblance, except perhaps in this mode of growth.  This indigenous vine is being cultivated in Europe much as the European ivy is here, for adorning walls.’  [Millspaugh – Medicinal Plants vol.1, p.40/1892].

‘Loudon says A. hederacea is the most vigorous-growing climber in Europe.  It thrives in almost every soil and situation from Warsaw to Naples.’  [JD].  Introduced to Britain in 1629.  [Hilliers’].

History at Camden Park

Only listed in the 1857 catalogue [T.314/1857].

Notes

Cissus hederacea Royle ex Walp. = Vitis capreolata D.Don, a Himalayan species.