Question

Colony collapse syndrome, where 30-90% of worker honeybees suddenly disappear, is a problem for agriculture because honeybees pollinate over 30% of US crops including many commonly consumed fruits like oranges, apples, and berries. Additionally, honeybees pollinate 90% of wild flowering plants supporting their biodiversity!

As a concerned citizen and an informed scientist, you would like to support honeybees by growing plants that attract bees in your garden. Describe three different floral characteristics might you look for when buying plants from a garden nursery?

Answer 1

Colony collapse syndrome remains a key problem. There are many reasons for colony collapse including climate change, use of pesticides and fungicides. But, one significant cause is malnutrition/poor nutrition due to monoculture diet. The available food for the bees should come from diverse sources. For avoidance of monoculture diet, one should plant different varieties of day flowering plants.

Flower should possess following characters-

Plant should be daytime flowering- The flowering must happen during daytime. Flower should be bright (white, yellow or blue). Night time blooming plants can not be visited by most of the bees.Bees are primarily diurnal (day active). The flowers should be mildly and sweetly scented.

Presence of nectar and nectar guides- The nectars are the ultimate reward for the bees. Therefore, huge amount of nectar must be present in the flower. If there will be no nectar then bees may suffer malnutrition and ultimately colony collapse may happen.

Several flowers have developed ultraviolet nectar guide in their floral features to help bees in reaching to source of nectar quickly. Bees can see under UV light while other pollinators can not. So, this technique excludes the other pollinators from locating and stealing the nectar without actually contribution towards pollination. Ex- Mimulus

Shallow with proper landing space and sticky pollen- The flower should not be deep, otherwise it will not be accessible to bees (Deep flowers are more suitable for ornithophily due to long beak of birds). The flower should also have proper sitting or landing space so that the bee can comfortably transfer the pollen and access the nectar. Pollens also serve as source of protein for bees.

The pollen should be sticky for proper attachment on legs of bees. Non sticky pollens are more suitable for anemophily (wind pollination).

Example- Mustard, Rapeseed, Sunflower, etc.