[NatureNS] RE: Nova Scotian ivy question - sites in Halifax

Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 20:36:45 -0300
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
From: "P.L. Chalmers" <plchalmers@ns.sympatico.ca>
References: <20070807235946.vedw5rrp4rms4sk4@my2.dal.ca>
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Hi Steve,

         No need to drive as far as Wolfville to find English Ivy 
(Hedera helix).  It is well-established in some older gardens in the 
more sheltered parts of South End Halifax, but it doesn't seem to 
spread loose here much.  There are a couple of sites which you can 
easily examine from the street in the Dalhousie neighbourhood :

         Walk west on Coburg Road.  The second-last house on the 
north side of Coburg, before you get to the railway bridge, has 
English ivy growing along the front border and up into a big 
Linden.  An even better patch is downhill from here, closer to the 
North West Arm.  To get there, continue west on Coburg, cross the 
railway bridge, and immediately turn left onto Thornvale Avenue.  The 
first house on the left has a long-established planting (at least 30 
years old) covering the length of the stone wall there.  It may have 
spread behind the house onto the railway lands; there is an 
unofficial footpath along the top of the railway cut, behind the 
houses, if you want to explore.  I think if you walk around this 
area  you will find many more sites - I seem to recall lots of it on 
Rockcliffe and Birchdale,  for instance.   There are dense patches 
growing up a brick house on Cambridge Street near Geldert, as well, 
but you would have to trespass in order to inspect them 
closely.  (The local House Finches nest in them, by the way.)

         Cheers,

         Patricia L. Chalmers
         Halifax

P.S.  Tell us more about tree hoppers.  When I sit under the ash tree 
in my backyard these days I regularly have some small neat bugs hop 
onto me.  Is that what these are?

On 7-Aug-07, at 11:59 PM, Stephen Shaw wrote:

>Hi all,
>A biologist who's briefly visiting from UK and who I mentioned here 
>earlier has
>just asked me if there is any native ivy in Nova Scotia.  We have had
>considerable success in collecting locally several species of jumping bugs
>(Homoptera -- treehoppers, leafhoppers, froghoppers -- thanks Chris and others
>for earlier info on these). He's also interested in a particular group that in
>UK lives exclusively on the dark green creeping ivy that is common climbing up
>walls and buildings there (I don't know the species name).  He's interested in
>the phenomenal jump mechanism of this varied group of jumpers, which has
>something in common with the operation of a crossbow.
>
>Does anyone have any ideas to offer on ivy?  If so, could you recommend a
>location for ivy in or fairly near Halifax (say as far as Wolfville) that we
>could visit?  Alternatively, presumably there will be some stands of 
>introduced
>UK ivy over here as well.  I know where to find some Virginia Creeper, but
>which I suspect may not be closely related.
>
>Any info would be welcome even if it is negative on the presence of 
>"ivy". He is
>here only for another 10 days.
>Steve
>

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