A bumblebee visit

One of my favorite warm-season garden activities is watching flower visitors. Bumblebees, carpenter bees, squash bees, blueberry bees, leaf-cutter bees, honeybees, butterflies, wasps, hoverflies, sweatbees, and hummingbirds collect either nectar or pollen or both.


I can't imagine why I ever (as a clueless graduate student) thought that this wasn't interesting, preferring the germination strategies of weedy species (hmm, at least that turned out to be useful).

But as a gardener, and garden educator, I've had SO much fun observing flower visitors, and encouraging other folks to watch.


This morning, a (female) bumblebee was foraging on one of the purple coneflowers in the front meadow, busily working through the fresh young flowers that make up the 'head' of a composite, collecting pollen (note her pollen basket) as well as nectar. I had to check with my gardening companion (uh, he studied pollination biology in graduate school) about their foraging habits!

Flower visitors

I enjoy watching flower visitors. Are they collecting nectar or pollen (or both)? How are they visiting the flowers? Many are effective pollinators, transferring pollen between flowers, but not all are.

This bumblebee was sonicating ('buzzing') horsenettle flowers (Solanum carolinensis) to discharge pollen. Then, they take the pollen back to provision underground brood cells. About 8% of the world's plant species require 'buzz pollination' to effectively transfer pollen to stigmas.

Some large bees (such as this carpenter bee) 'rob' the nectar of available flowers, such as this Salvia, poking a hole in the base of the flower (corolla) tube.

Butterflies rely on nectar for a source of energy as adults, some getting energy from rotting fruits. Some will collect salts and minerals from shallow puddles, dung, or salty spots. Here's a silver-spotted skipper visiting a bee balm flower for nectar, getting an energy-rich boost.








Photo note:
My gardening companion took the horsenettle and bee photo, and a fellow educator just sent me the photo of the skipper visiting bee balm.

Common milkweed and bee balm

Common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, is a robust plant, spreading by rhizomes (underground stems). But it's a favored host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars, which is recommendation enough for me. It's just started to flower, and is being visited by lots of flower visitors, just like its relative, Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed). I transplanted it into our meadow thanks to my butterfly gardening friends, and it's flourishing.

The bee balm doesn't much like the ongoing drought, but is a tough customer nevertheless. Bumblebees were active visitors close to dusk.

Asclepias tuberosa

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is a great native here in the southeastern U.S. It's not a great host plant for monarch butterflies (as a milkweed), but it's a tremendous nectar and pollen plant for LOTS of flower visitors. Mine have been alive with visitors, from honeybees to bumblebees to syrphid flies to butterflies.

A bee party

I think (after discussing this with my gardening companion - long distance) that there must be more common bumblebee species here than at home. I'll have to do more research, but my gardening companion (who studied pollination biology) suggests that the cooler climate here in England would favor more bumblebees, who can fly at lower temperatures, relative to butterflies and other insects. I have seen a few wasp-like flower visitors, but primarily a remarkable array (to me) of bumblebees, in addition to honeybees.

Regardless, I've been having a field day observing and taking pictures of them!

A great variety of bees

I've enjoyed watching some impressive bees visiting flowers-- large golden-striped bumblebees, smaller bees with different markings, and honeybees.

I've only seen a single butterfly, and that from a distance-- it looked like a cabbage white.

Bumblebee sleeping

Late this afternoon I noticed a bumblebee settling down for the night on a rosemary flower. Not a very sheltered place, but perhaps the cooling temperature caught her (or him) there.

There aren't many large flowers around now to provide a better place.

Only the queen bumblebees will overwinter, in underground nests, so these worker bumblebees are just hanging out until frost.

Honeybees, however, will come out and forage on warm days especially in late winter, when the early ornamentals (winter honeysuckle, Japanese apricots, etc.) provide nectar and pollen, since they're on a different schedule than our natives.