Hedera helix

An evergreen shrub that climbs up to 20 m, holding on with clinging roots, or grows free.

Leaves are leathery and glossy: angular and 3 to 5 lobed on non-flowering shoots, but undivided on flowering shoots.

The yellowish-green flowers are 3 to 4 mm long and grow in many-flowered, rounded umbels.

Info Flora gives September to October as the flowering period in Switzerland.

In Switzerland it grows on trees, rocks and walls, from the colline to the montane belt.

The Bavarian LWG notes that ivy is visited enormously by bees on sunny days when it flowers in September and October.

In a UK study, on average 89 percent of pollen loads collected by honeybees in autumn came from ivy.

Ivy nectar was an even bigger draw than pollen: 80 percent of honeybee foragers on ivy collected only nectar.

The same study measured ivy nectar as rich in sugar, at 49 percent by weight.

The ivy bee Colletes hederae collects pollen from several plants but preferentially from ivy.

In Switzerland the main flight period of the ivy bee runs from early August through much of October.

The ivy bee has since spread strongly in Switzerland, from the southwest towards the north.