Unnamed Cultivar nr.2

Unnamed cultivar nr.1 has some potential, but this one is a freak show candidate. It originated from a shoot I propagated vegetatively from a variegated ivy growing for tens of years at a cemetery. Actually this was the first ivy I propagated (August 15th, 2003). Naively I thought entire white leaves could be propagated and grown.

It took more than a year for the cuttings to develop. Before that, there wasn't any growth noticeable. I have to say I kept only two of the cuttings because they had potential. One eventually developed an entire white shoot. Unnamed cultivar nr. 2 developed a rather peculiar, very fasciated shoot, not at all with the leaf shape I kept it for.

The leaves are basically wavy and crinkled, almost folded in two. On the midvein grow small protrusions. The petioles are the cause of the folding. It looks like they are fasciated vertically: one 'petiole' grows on top the other. At the petiole attachment point the leaf 'tries' to correct that resulting in a twisted leaf shape. Because of the fasciated branches it is difficult to see let alone photograph. There are virtually no internodes. The appearance of the plant is therefore very bushy, almost like lettuce.

The leaf colour ranges from green to entire white. The four variegated leaves on the picture have a more silvery appearance. The basic colour is white. It is completely netted with tiny green lines. I like it and hope to propagate it some time. The relative position of the four mentioned leaves shows that this ivy doesn't grow opposite leaves. It has a so called altered phyllotaxis caused by the fasciation. I'll explain this phenomenon in the near future on my website 'English ivy covered' where I now write down my finds on variegation.