Rebecca Speare-Cole, Press Association Sustainability Reporter
Gardeners are being encouraged to grow common ivy to support pollinators after an eight-year study identified it as the most popular flower for visiting insects.
The research, released on Wednesday, saw citizen scientists spending 10 minutes counting the number of times pollinating insects visited 14 common flowers across the country between April and September.
The climbing vine’s abundant late-summer and autumn blooms received the highest average visit numbers, according to the findings.
This was followed by hogweed, bramble, buddleja, knapweeds and thistle in overall insect popularity.
The survey also found that buddleja attracts four times as many butterflies and moths as other high-scoring flowers.
The findings are part of the annual “UK pollinator monitoring scheme” or (Poms), which has collated data from citizen scientists recording insect visits to flowers since 2017.
The scheme is run by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), with support from other partners such as Butterfly Conservation, with the counts taking place from April 1 to September 30 each year.
Jo Milborrow, Butterfly Conservation butterfly monitoring officer, said: “These results are fantastic because they provide valuable information about pollinators’ favourite flowers, helping people all over the country take action at home to support butterflies, moths and other insects.
“We already recommend ivy as a great plant to grow because it is an important resource for breeding Holly Blue butterflies and nectaring Commas and Red Admirals.
“So the fact that this easy-to-grow native species is also the number one plant for pollinating insect visits is a fantastic discovery.
“We would recommend people to start growing ivy today.”
Butterfly Conservation said it urges people to grow plants that support butterflies, but buddleja – known as “the butterfly bush” is more complicated because it is a non-native species that can be invasive, disrupting local ecosystems.
The organisation said anyone growing buddleja at home should deadhead it – chopping off the flower heads – as soon as it has finished flowering to stop it from self-seeding.
It also encourages people to grow caterpillar foodplants, which are essential for butterflies and moths to complete their life cycle, such as bird’s-foot trefoil, garlic mustard and nasturtiums.
Elsewhere, the latest annual report from PoMS revealed that hoverflies declined by around a third in both their abundance and the number of species recorded across Great Britain in all three surveys conducted over the past eight years.
The total numbers of all insects, and of bumblebees, also declined in two of the three PoMS surveys, with its organisers warning that this signals possible risks to the health of the country’s ecosystems.
The abundance and number of species of solitary bees increased in one survey but did not change in the other two.
However, honeybees, other (non-hoverfly) flies and beetles all increased in the survey covering mostly gardens, according to the findings.
This suggests gardens could be providing an important refuge for some pollinators, the conservation experts said.
Ms Milborrow said: “Sadly, these figures from the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme add yet more evidence of worrying declines among our insects, which isn’t a huge surprise given what we know about our native butterflies and moths.
“However, growing flowers for pollinators like ivy, and caterpillar foodplants such as nasturtiums, are simple and really effective actions we can take to make a tangible difference.”
The annual scheme recommends a list of 14 target flowers to monitor, but counts can be carried out on any patch of flowers in gardens or the countryside.
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