The Ivy is at It.

10-19-11 SHORT HILLS: Another rainy day, they just keep coming. We had dinner with Anna and Dylan at L’Absinthe on E. 67th St last night and afterwards walked over to visit their sub-let. A nice post-prandial jaunt. The trip in was hellish—the GWB was backed up so drivers diverted to the tunnels to cross the Hudson, and the tunnels got backed up as a consequence. At the restaurant, the decor and food were excellent, but it's a bit pricey.

Tonight we’re taking Soibhan to Ninety Acres in Peacack-Gladstone, NJ. She is here on business for J&J.

The other day, while emptying the rain gauge once again, I noticed a swarm of pollinators buzzing around the upper reaches of a black pine. The tree is swaddled in English ivy, and the ivy is in bloom. The ivy, a common, evergreen gound-cover, spreads itself pretty quickly, especially in shade and will climb trees. It doesn’t like drought, not a problem this year. Unfortunately the deer eat it.

Seeing it flower is a relative rarity and only happens when it is established on a tree. The flower is totally non-descript, but attracts loads of bees and other flying pollinators, although I can't smell anything. The fertilized flowers will produce berries. The leaves lose their familiar, pointed lobes and become oval when in reproductive mode.

New blooms: English ivy.



Two pix of the buds, flowers and developing berries. Note the oval shaped leaf and lots of pollinators.

The round buds, at the top of the pic, open to flowers with stamens, middle and lower.

The fertilized flowers lose the stamens and petals and will become berries.

Contrast the leaf with pointed lobes on the ground with the oval leaves above.