Spring Species Hunt

The species that I decided to hunt down was Common Ivy (Hedera helix), observed by iNaturalist user and Geography 171 classmate marceairene . She made the observation on UC Berkeley's campus, between Sproul Hall and the Hearst Field Annex. There's a lot of ivy that grows alongside buildings in Berkeley, and while it is maintained by Physical Plant-Campus Services, it didn't seem to be a captive or non-native species. But after a little research, I found that ivy isn't native at all (it comes from across the Atlantic and was introduced during colonial times) and is, in fact, an invasive species that can cause ecological problems.

The original observation that I hunted down is this one: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/575077

Posted on April 10, 2014 03:32 AM by