Family: Araliaceae Juss.
Distribution: Europe and Southwestern Asia – to Southern Scandinavia in the north, to Ukraine, Caucasus and Northern Iraq in the east.
Ecology: It grows in shady deciduous woods, on rocks and old walls, from lowlands to foothills.
Description: An evergreen climber up to 20 m long, the leaves are leathery, opposite, in two basic forms – nonflowering branches have leaves palmately three- or five-lobed, flowering ones have entire leaves, ovate to lanceolate. The flowers are small, greenish, arranged in rounded umbels, flowers from September to October. The fruit is a black berry. Many forms of varying leaf shape and colour are often cultivated in the gardens.
Note: All parts of the plant are poisonous. The young leaves are used medicinally – they should never be collected and used for self-medication.
These images were taken in Czechia, Brno (from 27. 9. 2004 to 15. 1. 2005).
