On reaching Strahovský klášter I perambulated the entrance courtyard, admiring the vine-like creepers on the walls and the imprints left by old branches now torn away. Admire a plant I may, but name one can I rarely. Hampered a little by the shrivelled leaves not obviously proclaiming their obovate shape or serrated edges or pinnate venation, but emboldened by the colour of the berries on their reddish pedicles, I hazard that it is Parthenocissus quinquefolia, or Virginia creeper to an Englishman. At least some species of Parthenocissus (Gk parthenos virgin, and kissos (L cissus) ivy), or failing that, undoubtedly of the Vitaceae family...
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