Leaves triangular to ovate, often heart-shaped at the base, usually slightly three-lobed, very dark green. Leaves on adult branches mostly angular ovate, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base. Fruits black. The indumentum of the young shoots, etc., consists of scales made up of fifteen to twenty rays.
Native of Japan and Korea (but a closely related ivy grows in Formosa and is now regarded as a subspecies of H. rhombea). It is of rather delicate growth, but quite hardy.
cv. ‘Variegata’. – Leaves with a narrow margin of creamy white (H. helix submarginata Hibb.). In cultivation 1867.