A tribute to ivy
There are days in October where you could get fooled into thinking it is still summer. But of course we know better. Even though the sun is shining and the sky is blue, the nights last almost 15 hours and there is shade between the city’s houses all day, which is why the flowers have lost their blossoms a long time ago. It is no longer easy to be a fly or butterfly in the nature because there is no food, and that, combined with the cold, means almost certain death. However, some places do still offer “gourmet food” for the insects and this is even an “all you can eat buffet”. We are of course talking about the twining plant called ivy.
Ivy, which is called Hedera helix in Latin due to the twisted lifestyle, does in fact not need to wind itself to get upwards. It has special climbing roots, which ensures that it easily sticks to smooth beech woods and brick walls. And up is exactly where it is heading, as it is looking for sunlight. In the floors of the forests or gardens, it can become quite dense while it is looking for the perfect ascending opportunity, however, at one point it will definitely rise. With its full leaves, ivy can sometimes end up shading the host tree to death, and it can also end up covering very large areas of wall in the cities as for example in the University Park in Aarhus. However, this is something to be happy about as the leaves keep the walls dry and they function as isolation so that loss of heating can be decreased by approximately 10 %!
Ivy likes mild winters, which is why it belongs in Western Europe – especially in England, where every old garden in the countryside has a giant ivy or two. In the rich soil of Eastern Jutland, it is possible to find wild ivy many places, and in the cities, they are found planted out in gardens, parks and up along walls. They really show their place in the world when they are allowed to grow and cover the ground from top to bottom.
Ivy blooms during the autumn and this shows. Far into the winter, ivy provides nectar in plenty amounts in the round, shallow flowers, and the insects merely need to dip their trunks to get to the good stuff. So even if the days are shorter, it is still possible to meet an orgy of insects surrounding the ivy. You will especially find large brown buzzing flies from the drone fly family, but also red admirals, blowflies, hornets and other things will be swarming around. Around ivy, the insect season lasts until New Year’s, which is why it is a plant we think of very highly.