Ensembles of indium phosphide nanowires were grown on amorphous quartz substrates and their optical properties were examined at various cryogenic temperatures. Complex dynamics result from the large areal densities, random orientation, combination of both zincblende and wurtzite phases, and the geometries of the nanowires. Those complex dynamics are discussed in relation to their effect on the temperature dependence of photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. Five peaks are found to exist in the photoluminescence spectra at low temperatures which are attributed to radiative recombinations associated with quantum confined zinc blende, quantum confined excitons in zinc blende, quantum confined wurtzite, excitons in bulk zinc blende and impurity states. An energy transfer mechanism between two types of radiative recombinations among the five is proposed to explain intensity variations and the temperature dependence of the PL peaks is discussed. The Raman spectra is observed to have peaks created by a combination of zinc blende and wurtzite vibrational modes which is explained by folding the phonon dispersion.