Araliaceae

Fatsia japonica

Japanese aralia

Look for: 
- a large, upright shrub,
- bare stalks topped with large, deeply-lobed leaves with palmate margins,
- spherical clusters of white flowers in the wintertime.

Araliaceae

Hedera canariensis

Algerian ivy

Look for: 
- A spreading ivy,
- large, shiny, dark, 3-lobed leaves,
- wine-red petioles, 
- flowers in umbellate heads that appear when the plant grows up a vertical surface.

Araliaceae

Hedera helix

English ivy

Look for: 
- A vigorous ivy that climbs any vertical surface,
- three- to five-lobed dark green leaves (juvenile form),
- unlobed light green leaves (adult form),
- spherical umbels of white flowers in the wintertime,
- purple fruits in the springtime.

Araliaceae

Schefflera spp.

Schefflera

Look for: 
- a houseplant with dark, glossy foliage,
- palmately compound leaves, 
- no flowers.

Casuarinaceae

Casuarina cunninghamiana

River sheoak

Look for: 
- A tree that superficially resembles a pine, 
- linear, jointed twigs with whorls of minute leaves at the joints,
- either male flowers in catkins at the end of twigs or

- cone-shaped female strobili perched along the branches.

Elaeagnaceae

Elaeagnus pungens

Silverberry

Look for: 
- An evergreen shrub,
- alternate, elliptic leaves with entire margins,
- upper sides of leaf surfaces that are dark green with silvery scales,
- undersides of leaves that are pale silver with bronze dots.

Oleaceae

Ligustrum japonicum

Japanese privet

Look for: 
- An evergreen shrub somewhere between the size of a beach ball and a Mini Cooper,
- opposite, entire, elliptic leaves that feel thick and spongy,
- stiffly revolute leaf margins,
- prominent white lenticels on the branches,
- persistent flower stalks with a few, solitary fruit that resemble small olives.

Oleaceae

Ligustrum lucidum

Glossy privet

Look for: 
- a narrow evergreen tree, often with multiple trunks,
- bark that is flat and pale gray to almost white,
- opposite, entire, elliptic leaves that are thin and stiff,
- leaf margins that are translucent and glow in direct light,
- large and showy clusters of purple fruit (in the winter).

Oleaceae

Olea europaea

Olive

Look for: 
- an evergreen tree with twisted and gnarled trunk,
- opposite, slender leaves that are dark green above and pale below,
- green fruit that ripen to purple.

Polypodiaceae

Adiantum spp.

Maidenhair fern

Look for: 
- A low-growing fern with delicate foliage,
- fan-shaped pinnules (subleaflets) that have parallel veins and wavy outer margins,
- petioles and rachises that are shiny, black, and wiry,
- sori often covered by a false indusium formed by the revolute margin of the pinnule.

Polypodiaceae

Asplenium nidus

Bird's nest fern

Look for: 
- An indoor plant (in Davis),
- fronds that are large and entire, up to 4 feet long, and arranged in a rosette,
- a central "nest" of curled fronds in the middle,
- sori in parallel bands along the secondary veins on the backside of the fronds.

Polypodiaceae

Cyrtomium falcatum

Japanese holly fern

Look for: 
- a clumping or mound-forming fern,
- odd-pinnately-compound fronds that are dark and glossy,
- alternate, falcate pinnae with wavy margins and oblique bases, 
- distinctive lobing on the terminal pinna, 
- circular brown sori in interesting patterns on the underside of the foliage.

Polypodiaceae

Nephrolepis cordifolia

Southern sword fern

Look for: 
- A terrestrial, evergreen fern,
- long, narrow compound fronds,
- overlapping pinnae that cover the backside of the rachis,
- pinnae margins that are entire to toothed, 
- kidney-shaped sori in two rows on the underside of each pinna.

Polypodiaceae

Polystichum munitum

Western sword fern

Look for: 
- A clumping evergreen fern found on the forest floor,
- pinnately compound fronds that form a rosette and spread out radially,
- pinnae margins that are serrated with bristly tips,
- pinnae that are held out slightly from the rachis on short petioles,
- sori that are round and form parallel lines of brown dots on the back of the pinnae.

Polypodiaceae

Woodwardia fimbriata

Giant chain fern

Look for: 
- A clumping fern with large fronds (up to 9 feet high),
- pinnae with pinnatifid margins and reticulate venation that forms areoles (loops) next to the central vein in each lobe,
- oblong to linear sori positioned along the outer veins of the areoles, forming a double chain on the underside of the pinnae.