Plant These Flowers To Protect the Bumblebees In Your Garden
Bees are quite an important species of insects on this planet. Their importance is mostly felt in crop production, pollination, and other aspects of agriculture. Bumblebees have always provided us with an indelible link to the production of food and yet are constantly threatened in the 21st century. Ironically, there are over 20,000 species of bees throughout the world, of which 4000 are native to America. Now, it isn’t exactly good news that we are ripping the hand that is feeding us, is it?
Needless to say, our lives would be in quite a dire state if bees were to become an old relic. So now scientists decided to look into flowering plants to find the flowers which bumblebees and other bees mostly crowd around.
Their study bore some useful results, as the authors mentioned, “Determining bumblebee species’ plant selection is important for retaining and promoting high-quality plant resources that will help populations persist.”
Jerry Cole of the IBP stated, “It’s important to consider the availability of plants when determining what’s selected for by bees. Often studies will use the proportion of captures on a plant species alone to determine which plants are most important to bees.
Without comparison to how available those plants are, you might think a plant is preferentially selected by bees when it is simply very abundant.”
In 2015 and 2016, scientists decided to go through the Sierra Nevada region to look for bumblebees and which flowers they usually flocked to. The result was that bumblebees usually crowded around a singular type of flower, irrespective of how geographically distant it was.
Helen Loffland, also of the IBP mentioned, “We discovered plants that were big winners for all bumblebee species but, just as importantly, plant species that were very important for only a single bumble bee species.
This study allowed us to provide a concise, scientifically based list of important plant species to use in habitat restoration that will meet the needs of multiple bumble bee species and provide blooms across the entire annual lifecycle.”
The group’s main focus was on the yellow bumblebee, which was found to have a special liking to the lupine, a variety of plants with large-leaves. Some other bumblebees chose the checker-mellow Oregon, the mountain-balm Alpine, bluebells which were tall and fringed, and hedge nettle cobwebby. It was also found that bumblebees usually selected a flower simply based on how easily it could be found, the color, the quality of the nectar, and the quantity of the pollen. It had to be aesthetic to attract the bee’s attention.
Cole added “It wouldn’t hurt to plant some of the species we identify here in your home garden. But the way that these plants are beneficial are not just on their own. You have to have a nice complement of plants that provide food resources throughout the season and not just at one point in the season.”
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A pair of Bombus vosnesenskii queens warm up on the sleeve of field biologist Alma Schrage prior to release. New research by IBP and partners helps bumble bee conservation in the Sierra Nevada by identifying their favorite flowers. See link in bio. #pollinators #conservation #NativeBees #BumbleBees
A post shared by Institute for Bird Populations (@instbirdpop) on Jan 28, 2020 at 11:01am PST
With that, the authors finally stated “Maintaining, seeding or planting these ‘bumblebee plants’ while managing the surrounding landscape” to support a “diverse floral community is likely to benefit bumblebees, especially if some combination of favored plant species are blooming across the duration of bumblebee activity at a given location.”
It has been found out that the best time would be from March to October, so do plant a few flowers and see bumblebees flocking around your garden!
Bees are quite an important species of insects on this planet. Their importance is mostly felt in crop production, pollination, and other aspects of agriculture. Bumblebees have always provided us with an indelible link to the production of food and yet are constantly threatened in the 21st century. Ironically, there are over 20,000 species of…