Ground-ivy

Here's another wildflower I ran across this spring, the Ground-ivy. I wish I could tell you that these guys were an important part of our ecosystem ... but unfortunately this is another invasive wildflower. It's considered a pretty aggressive invader at that, where only chemical warfare (herbicides) can usually get rid of it. Ground-ivy uses negative allelopathy (basically chemicals in the soil) to hinder the growth of other plants, and uses it's runners to create a monoculture (low biological diversity).

On a brighter note, it at least provides nectar and pollen for our pollinators, though it uses a "lucky hit" technique whereby some of its flowers provide lots of nectar but most of them provide far less nectar. Pollinators need to visit a bunch of their flowers getting no reward, but if they visit enough of them they're probably going to hit a "nectar jackpot".

Despite the "ivy" name, these plants are in the mint family; they're not a true ivy. Another name for them is Creeping Charlie, denoting the way the plants creep along the ground to cover an area.

March 31, 2021 at Duke Farms



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