Ivy has to be one of the most maligned and misunderstood plants we encounter, but it is, without doubt, one of the most important autumn flowering plants around.
The arrival of autumn sees many of the summer-flowering plants of both garden and hedgerow start to produce seeds and fruit. This bodes well for birds looking to build up fat reserves to help them through the winter months, but what of the insects that are on the wing during the early autumn months?
One of the most nectar rich plants that actually begins to flower as summer morphs into autumn is Ivy. Often regarded as too vigorous with an unfounded reputation for causing damage to walls and trees, Ivy supports a whole host of insects looking to refuel on a sunny day.
On the 25th of September I was drawn to the garden wall at the far end of the garden by the irregular movements of what I thought was a single Red Admiral butterfly. The wall is covered in several varieties of Ivy, but it is the native Ivy, Hedera helix, that was the subject of the attention of said Red Admiral. Bathed in sunshine, it proved to be host to 11 Red Admirals gorging on the nectar produced by the numerous flowers, and these were accompanied by 3 Comma butterflies and dozens of Ivy bees (Colletes hederae), wasps and various species of hoverfly.
I was transfixed for quite some time by this autumn spectacle, and despite a few sporadic sunny intervals in the days since this encounter, it has never reached this level of activity again to date.
It definitely is worth stopping on a sunny October day to investigate any established flowering Ivies be they on garden walls, climbing telegraph poles, scrambling through hedgerows or using larger trees for support. You will not be disappointed.
Richard M. Jeffery
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