Leaves triangular-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, 2 to 41⁄2 in. long, 1 to 21⁄2 in. wide, often with two blunt lobes near the base and with bluntish, lobulate teeth on the upper part of the leaf, greyish green and the veins still paler grey. In the fruiting state the leaves are entire, ovate-lanceolate, half to two-thirds as wide as they are long, tapered at the base. Fruits yellow or orange. The young stems, petioles, and inflorescence parts are scaly, the scales yellowish brown, twelve- to fifteen-rayed.
Native of the Himalaya. The early Himalayan botanists did not separate this species from H. helix, but it is distinct enough in its foliage, in its scaly indumentum and yellow fruits. It was also confused with the poet’s ivy, H. helix var. poetica, which it resembles only in its yellow fruits. It is rather more tender than the common ivy, but does well on a wall.
var. sinensis (Tobler) Rehd. H. himalaica var. sinensis Tobler; H. sinensis (Tobler) Hand.-Mazz. – This variety, which is perhaps not in cultivation, has the juvenile leaves entire or three-lobed near the base and hence lacking the lobules in the upper part of the leaf so characteristic of the Himalayan ivy. Native of China.