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Right now ivy is in bloom. One doesn’t have to see it to know that it is flowering, since the smell will be the tell-tale that it is nearby.
It is one of the last flowering plants of the year, providing large quantities of pollen and nectar for bees. In recent years, possibly due to change in our climate, the honeybee has been able to take in sizable quantities of its nectar.
This has a profound impact on stores within the hive during the winter months, ensuring the survival of the colony, should the beekeeper fail to properly feed it after the removal of the honey crop.
Although any bee will work ivy, Colletes hederae, the ivy bee, is dependent on the ivy plant for its supply of pollen. If ivy were to be culled from hedgerows the likelihood is that this bee could be adversely affected. While this bee is now found in England, it may not have arrived in Ireland yet.
The bumblebee Bombus terristris, has been observed working ivy in the south of England.
With our climate becoming milder, it is possible this bee will use the ivy here to extend its brood rearing. The flowers seem to attract a multitude of flies and who knows, if we observed the flowers a bit more, one may spot some unusual visitors.
As with any honey crop, the bees fill their brood area first, and then any surplus is placed above them, if there is space. Beekeepers provide this space so that they can collect the honey. The honey crystallises rapidly making processing rather tricky.
Those that pack it into jars will be able to place it on the market. I have a liking for it in its solid state, slicing it up like cheese. The honey has the same smell as the aroma coming from the blooms.
The taste is strongly ivy but once the palate becomes used to it, one may look forward to using it.
Interestingly last year I stopped eating the ling heather honey, instead, favouring the ivy. I suppose if the plant puts a good coat on cattle that eat it, I might get some benefit from the saponins in the honey.
From time to time articles appear denouncing the ivy plant and others praising it.
Ivy growing with support from trees will produce flowers, as it gets older. Mature trees withstand it, providing support for its upward growth.
Once the plant is mature, it produces flowers in vast quantities, making travel time really economical for bees as they fly from flower to flower.
The wonder of nature, economising on space by having this plant, like most others, go upward rather than outwards.
A lot has been spoken in recent times about the need to change our ways to balance our production of greenhouse gasses. Trees remove CO2 and produce O2 through their leaves. As winter approaches, the leaves are dwindling from the trees and there in now a void.
The likes of the evergreen trees and plants are left to take up the slack. Ivy, with its evergreen leaves, is one plant doing just that. Look around and see how many evergreens are nearby.
Honeybees, amongst others, are the mainstay of pollination. The ivy gets them through the long winter, ensuring survival and the opportunity, to yet again, work on our behalf.
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