Boston Ivy

[BonsaiMatt]

Please share your Boston Ivy, or any tips on growing them as bonsai.

Here's mine:

 

[sorce]

Anyone with Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) experience...

@Walter Pall I know your a busy man...I've always admired you. I especially admire your Boston Ivy I've seen on your blog. Anything you can think of that can help me better understand the plant itself in taking it to the next level? Or anyone else for that matter. I'm finding little of actual...

www.bonsainut.com

Nice pot. Who's it from?

Sorce

 

[Potawatomi13]

Seem that's not Ivy but Virginia Creeper. Isn't that something different? Some on here have these. Great fall color. Grow like weeds if well cared for, take forever to grow any trunk, natural cascades, can make good neagari style.

 

[Cadillactaste]

You've noticed how delicate the vining is by now. I permit mine to run along my bench cutting back to a degree in fall. To help thicken the Vine which will eventually be the branch structure. I've my small pot into a larger one for a better moisture ratio for the pot in the full sun. It's far fuller than it was the previous year. So I believe it's thanking me.




I'm not sure where the one sees a Virginia Creeper. That is one with five leaves. As shown.

 

[Forsoothe!]

The two have leaves that look alike on some varieties of which names I don't know. Boston has 3 lobes and Virginia has 5 lobes per cluster.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

The two have leaves that look alike on some varieties of which names I don't know. Boston has 3 lobes and Virginia have 5 lobes per cluster.

The way you can tell them apart is that Boston Ivy looks mildly like poison ivy. Enough so that just as you are about to step on it, you think "holy crap, poison ivy!", and jump ten feet backwards, almost tripping over your landscaping tools. Then you go "oh, nevermind it's just Boston Ivy!"

 

[Forsoothe!]

I have the same problem with Acer negundo seedlings that are found in groups in spring. I'm always too scared to look closely, just wanting to jump the hell out of there.

 

[Cadillactaste]

The way you can tell them apart is that Boston Ivy looks mildly like poison ivy. Enough so that just as you are about to step on it, you think "holy crap, poison ivy!", and jump ten feet backwards, almost tripping over your landscaping tools. Then you go "oh, nevermind it's just Boston Ivy!"

I can not TELL you how many informed me that I was growing Poison Ivy!

 

[Forsoothe!]

Poison Ivy grows nicely in pot. I had one for several years just for fun, keeping it somewhat apart and never touching it without gloves. It started to look good and I thought about using it in a show as an accent plant, but then thought about people like my nephew who is so allergic to it that he gets it when he's downwind of it in some season. I got rid of it because I was fearful someone, some visitor, would touch it without knowing what it was and would come back and beat me to a pulp... Fun depends upon who is having it at who's expense.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Poison Ivy grows nicely in pot. I had one for several years just for fun, keeping it somewhat apart and never touching it without gloves. It started to look good and I thought about using it in a show as an accent plant, but then thought about people like my nephew who is so allergic to it that he gets it when he's downwind of it in some season. I got rid of it because I was fearful someone, some visitor, would touch it without knowing what it was and would come back and beat me to a pulp... Fun depends upon who is having it at who's expense.

I'm leery of where I put my Virginia Creeper. I've always kept it away from people. My mom was really allergic to it. This year it's more in front on my bench. But I intend to keep it cut back more...and I've never had anyone touch the foliage of a tree. Other than the ginkgo...But I respect you for your stance on concerned for others.

 

[sorce]

So what is the one with the grape looking leaves?

Sorce

 

[Cadillactaste]

So what is the one with the grape looking leaves?

Sorce

Grape looking leaves? Not sure which one that is...share the image?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Okay, you guys are getting confusing. Common names can add confusion.

Parthenocissus - is a genus of vines, which includes both "Boston Ivy" and "Virginia creeper". Not at all related to Poison Ivy. Parthenocissus is related to Vitis, the genus which includes grapes, both the wild grapes and culinary and wine grapes.

3 leaflets -
Parthenocissus tricuspidata - This is Boston Ivy. It is native to Japan, not Boston, also Korea and adjacent northeastern China. Widely used as an ornamental. It climbs by use of tendrils with sticky pads, that can adhere to smooth surfaces. (like tree frog toes) No allergens were listed in Wikipedia. Possibly contains oxalic acids, which to a small number of people might get an allergic reaction. While it looks like poison ivy, it would not elicit an allergic reaction. Only those sensitive to oxalic acids might have a reaction.

5 leaflets -
Parthenocissus quinquefolia - Virginia creeper - native to eastern North America west to Utah. 5 leaflets and it climbs with tendrils with sticky pads that adhere to smooth surfaces. Again, often planted as an ornamental. With 5 leaflets usually not confused with poison ivy. Brilliant red autumn foliage.

Parthenocissus henryana - Chinese creeper, Silver Vein Creeper - very ornamental 5 to 9 leaflet leaf. White midline stripe on green leaf is quite attractive. From central China. Wikipedia does not mention presence or absence of sticky pads, but does list it as being used to climb up walls, so assume sticky pads are present. Brilliant red autumn foliage.

Parthenocissus inserta syn. Parthenocissus vitacea - native to a wide range of North America - 5 leaflets per leaf. Very difficult to tell apart from quinquefolia. Key trait, P. inserta (P. vitacea) lacks sticky pads at the ends of tendrils. This species can not climb smooth surfaces. In nature tends to scramble through shrubs and trees where its tendrils can wrap around support. Otherwise very difficult to distinguish from P. quinquefolia. Usually called "False Virginia Creeper" or "Grape Woodbine". Brilliant red autumn foliage.

Toxicodendron radicans - Poison Ivy - not at all related to Vitis and Parthenocissus. Toxicodendron is in the cashew family, not at all related to grapes. Resemblance to Boston Ivy is superficial. Many members of Cashew family have allergens and or toxins.


@sorce - the thing you saw with grape like leaves, was probably a species of grape, Vitis. There are several wild species in Illinois and escapee domestic grapes. Simple leaves, not compound leaves. Vitis vulpina, fox grape, or frost grape and or Vitis riparia the riverbank grape, are the common wild grapes in the Chicago area. Vitis labrusca also called the fox grape, and is the wild species that the Concord, Catawba, and Niagara cultivated grapes were bred from.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Okay, you guys are getting confusing. Common names can add confusion.

Toxicodendron radicans - Poison Ivy - not at all related to Vitis and Parthenocissus. Toxicodendron is in the cashew family, not at all related to grapes. Resemblance to Boston Ivy is superficial. Many members of Cashew family have allergens and or toxins.

You should probably add that poison ivy has 3 leaflets. It sortof looks like you placed it in the "5 leaflet" group. Let me know if you want photos... my property is crawling with it!! (for now at least).

 

[BonsaiMatt]

So what is the one with the grape looking leaves?

Sorce

@sorce - the thing you saw with grape like leaves, was probably a species of grape, Vitis. There are several wild species in Illinois and escapee domestic grapes. Simple leaves, not compound leaves. Vitis vulpina, fox grape, or frost grape and or Vitis riparia the riverbank grape, are the common wild grapes in the Chicago area. Vitis labrusca also called the fox grape, and is the wild species that the Concord, Catawba, and Niagara cultivated grapes were bred from.

Mine puts out some grape leaf wannabes. Mine is v young, from a garden center last spring.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I put poison ivy at the end of my essay, because it is not at all related to the other species we were discussing. But you are right, "Leaflets 3, Let It Be" is the mantra. Poison ivy and Boston ivy do indeed look similar.

I have a tale from my youth, about an assignation, that took place under the stars, on a road trip. It was dark and we did not notice the poison ivy we were laying on. The next two weeks were absolute misery. Prior to that event I did not react much if at all to contact with poison ivy. Since that event, I break out very easily if I get near poison ivy. Then a decade later the group of my cousins, we bought a blueberry farm, also just loaded with poison ivy. And even better, the farm has a few patches of the even more allergenic poison sumac, Toxicodendron vernix. Fortunately the poison sumac is in the swamp, away from the blueberries, so I only run into it when scouting for trees to collect for bonsai.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Mine puts out some grape leaf wannabes. Mine is v young, from a garden center last spring.
View attachment 305095

You are right, young plants don't always produce the 3 leaflets or the 5 leaflets until they are a little more mature. And leaves just opening may not be fully divided into their 3 or 5 leaflet structure until the leaf is more fully expanded. So juvenile leaves can look like grape leaves.

 

[sorce]

Mine puts out some grape leaf wannabes. Mine is v young, from a garden center last spring.
View attachment 305095

Whose pot? That's dope!

Sorce

 

[sorce]

Must have been a grape!

That's it on my old neighbor's garage.


Odd because I would see new baby Boston Ivy plants starting below it, so I thought the leaves changed shape.

Seems just a coincidence.

I'll see if I can find a better pic.

What is on the wall at Wrigley? Boston?

I don't go there! Hahahahahaha!

Sorce

 

[BonsaiMatt]

Whose pot? That's dope!

Sorce

Thanks! My mom made it, it fits great!