From flower to berry
02 Thursday Dec 2021
Posted plants
in02 Thursday Dec 2021
Posted plants
in10 Sunday Jan 2021
Tags
I’m not sure I can subscribe to the ancient concept that wearing a wreath of ivy leaves around my head would stop me getting drunk but the leaves are certainly amazing and incredibly diverse in shape, form and colour. Juvenile leaves have between 3 and 5 lobes, while mature leaves have no lobes and can be shaped both like ovals and hearts.
And then there are the flowers, in bloom from September through to November and a source of food for more than 50 insect species, and the subsequent berries, ripe from November to January – or, until the berry-loving winter thrushes, finches, woodpigeons and other hungry birds gobble them all up. What an incredible plant ivy is!
19 Saturday Sep 2020
19 Tuesday Nov 2019
Tags
autumn insects, bees, British insects, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, hoverflies, ivy flowers, moth larva, Red Admiral, wasp
It may be late autumn, with shortening days, chill winds and cooling nights but, when the sun comes out as it did yesterday, the insects also come out to warm themselves and feed. During my walk around Cosmeston I spotted a late Red admiral butterfly and then, further on, where ivy was still flowering, a host of flying mini-beasties: hoverflies, various bees and wasps. And, near them, tucked away further down on a bramble leaf, even a caterpillar, probably a moth larva though I’m not sure which species.
14 Saturday Sep 2019
Posted 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature, plants
inI heard them before I saw them.
I’d been smelling the ivy flowers all day, as I walked one of my local circuits, though Cosmeston along to Lavernock and back to Penarth along the coastal path. But I hadn’t noticed any open flowers until I heard the loud buzzing coming from the ivy ahead of me on the path. It was alive with various species of bee and fly and hoverfly. And then I spotted what I was looking for – the ginger fluff and black-and-yellow-stripes of Ivy bees (Colletes hederae), my first for 2019.
You can find out more about these handsome creatures in my previous blogs here and here.
08 Monday Oct 2018
Tags
bees on Ivy flowers, British bees, Colletes hederae, Ivy bee, Ivy bee mapping project, ivy flowers
Most of the Ivy bees (Colletes hederae) I spotted when I was out walking last week were living up to their reputation as busy little mini-beasties.
But then I spotted this one, sitting on a leaf, cleaning the pollen off its legs, wings and body. I asked politely if it would please smile for the camera … and it did … I think.
Ivy bees only arrived in Britain in 2001 but they’ve slowly expanded their range across southern England and in to south Wales. They’re very handsome little bees and completely harmless but can only be seen when the Ivy is flowering, from September to November. If you spot one, it would really help if you could report it so that the wonderful folk at BWARS (the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society) can track the bees’ spread around Britain.
24 Sunday Sep 2017
Tags
bee mating frenzy, bees, bees on ivy, British bees, Colletes hederae, Ivy bee, Ivy bee mating ball, ivy flowers
Some days are just magical! I went out looking for birds – instead I got mobbed by Red admiral butterflies while walking along the coastal path, which made me grin like a Cheshire cat, and then I found these little buzzers.
They’re Ivy bees (Colletes hederae) and, as their name suggests, they feed on ivy flowers so they don’t appear until early autumn, when most other bees are winding down activities for the year. With an orange woolly thorax and orange-and-black striped abdomen, these bees are easy to identify, though Colletes hederae was only described as a separate species back in 1993 (before that it was confused with two other species of Colletes). Ivy bees only arrived in Britain from Europe in 2001 but have since gradually spread across southern England and in to south Wales: the extent of their spread is being tracked by BWARS, the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society, so please do log your sightings, either on their website here or with your local records centre.
I had seen my first Ivy bees for the year the previous week but this new sighting was more special because it was a colony. Though the Ivy bee is a solitary bee (it doesn’t form a hive), a group of females will often excavate their individual burrows and underground chambers together in a sandy bank or similar area of loose earth. And, as the BWARS website explains, male bees often wait by the burrows for females to return and then pounce on them. When the other males spot what’s happening, they also want a piece of the action, jumping on the mating couple to form a writhing mass or mating ball. I was lucky enough to see one of these happen, as shown below.
30 Friday Sep 2016
Tags
This little Harlequin ladybird was just one of the many insects – flies and hoverflies, honey bees, bumblebees and wasps, and a Red Admiral butterfly – that were enjoying the nectar and pollen to be found on these ivy flowers, an important source of food for so many insects in the autumn months.
You must be logged in to post a comment.