Wild Ivy

I noticed this one flowering in a garden the other day. Fizz and I don’t really do gardens but we guessed that if it was flowering in the garden it would be doing so in the wild too and so yesterday we set out to capture some wild Ivy.

This is Common Ivy, Hedera helix also known as English Ivy or just Ivy. Well at least that is what it used to be.

I have had a word with the experts and there are now apparently about fifteen different species in the Hedera genus. They can not agree between themselves exactly how many sub species there are and they all at one time or another were called Hedera helix but now you can’t actually recognise Ivy when you see it.

Baloney is a type of sausage originating from Italy and very popular in the United States but that is a subject for another post.

They look like little snow flakes just before they open.

I know that this is not the most spectacular of flowers, being a very unspectacular green one but there is a very good reason for noticing the Ivy flowers.

I shouldn’t really show you these next pictures. They were taken last January and there is precious little to photograph in January but this is the reason for noticing the flowers.

The beautiful berries are poisonous but this is one for the annoyers rather than the murderers, they are not highly toxic. All the same you should not eat them. Birds eat them.

Wikiwotsit says when speaking of the damage that Ivy does to buildings, and I quote, ” it also houses Mice and other unwelcome creatures.”

Yes it does. It harbours Bats as well and is a wonderful wild life plant for giving homes to many. Ivy draws it’s nutrients from it’s roots and doesn’t take anything from the trees that it scrambles over.

I know that people believe that Ivy chokes trees. I am not sure how it does this as trees do not have the same sort of respiratory system as Humans and are hard to strangle but I am not arguing. Dead wood is the single most important wild life habitat and a dead tree is much more useful than a live one but fortunately we can have both. I am not going to set myself against Mother Nature. If Ivy does kill trees then it takes a very long time to do so and ultimately it has done a good thing. That is natures way and many insects and birds will benefit.

When I was taking these photographs the Ivy was buzzing very loudly. At first I thought that I had found a Bee’s nest but it wasn’t a nest, just hundreds of insects taking the nectar. Mostly Honey Bees but the animal in this next picture is a Dead Head Hover Fly.

Beautiful little flowers from a lovely leaf that go on to be wonderful fruit. What more could we ask?