Hedera Helix is the latin name of the common ivy. This plant, which grows from node to node, evokes the RDF format whose knowledge graphs are articulated by connecting nodes. The rapidly climbing nature of the ivy reminds us of the living and growing nature of data. The choice of a plant to name this service is in line with other services from RISe such as Yareta abd Baobab; hedera is the new blossoming service within e-research's garden.

The official logo of the service offers some important semantic visual elements to further understand the nature and purpose of hedera: a tree is at the heart of the logo, in a way in which the roots and the leaves represent two sets of data distinguished by their different colors but linked by a common trunk, which is the hedera project itself. Moreover, the connection of the two parts of the tree to different letters of the name is not devoid of symbolism: the roots take their source in the h of the humanities, but the tree grows and blooms from the d of the digital world, thus evoking the perfect marriage between the humanities' fields of knowledge and their digital exploitation and expression.