The leaves are alternate, they are of two types, with palmately five-lobed juvenile leaves on creeping and climbing stems, and unlobed cordate adult leaves, lauroid type, on fertile flowering stems exposed to full sun, usually high in the crowns of trees or the top of rock faces. Stems are green. It has the largest leaves of any ivy to 15 cm wide and 25 cm long. The flowers are produced from late summer until late autumn, individually small, greenish, produced in large numbers in umbels, and very rich in nectar, an important food source for bees and other insects. It flowers in September and fruits form during or after winter. The fruits are berries, globular and black when ripe. They are an important food for many birds. There are one to five seeds in each berry, which are dispersed by the birds swallowing the berries
