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Monday 21 March 2011
Mrs Margaret Lear “The Fantastic Relationship between Flowers and Bees.”
This is the last talk in the winter series; next meeting will be demonstration at Iain Lilly’s apiary Saturday 7 May.
Margaret specialises in unusual over-looked plants at the Garden Nursery at Bankfoot, Perthshire. Plants with a purpose started in May 2001 as a small back-garden nursery specialising in the more esoteric herbs, and now has a stocklist of over 250 useful, culinary, medicinal, wildlife and edible subjects. Margaret is also a beekeeper but being a horticulturist for many years has asked the question of why bees go to one flower and not to another. Flowers and Bees both have a vested interest in each other, they have a partnership of pollination.
Bees get from plants Pollen and Nectar. The pollen is the male seed of plant; bees need the protein to feed the brood. Nectar the bee’s need the sweetness for the carbohydrate, nectar does nothing for plant except to attract the bee to pollinate or pollinating insects. Mostly the nectar is in flowers but sometime in leaves, extra floral nectaries are in leaves on Cherry Laurel Hedge.
What do plants get from bees? Pollen has to be transferred from male part of plant to female part. Some plants have male on one plant and female on another. Monkey Puzzle is wind pollinated. Hellebore from buttercup family female parts above the male stigmas so must be cross-pollinated strengthening the genes to other plants. Bees are faithful to species they start with they stick with the one kind of plant. If a plant is complex and the more complex the flower they will be attract bees and not other insects so much. If apple trees are not nicely pollinated they do not produce nice round fruit, you haven’t enough bees in the garden to pollinate them.
Some of the strategies that plant use to get bees to pollinate. Primular family: Cowslip and Primroses the stamens are longer than stigma. The flowers have developed with a deeper colour in centre where the nectary is to encourage pollinator. Honeybees and Bumblebees have furry bodies to attract the pollen. Foxglove tubular flower has stiff hair pointing back the way and insect can get stuck, but Bumble bees can force their way in and collect the pollen on the way out.
Colours the bees see:
Ultra violet, purple, blue, mauve, and pink flowers bees love.
Yellow, orange, red are less attractive.
Blue Hyssop bees love more than Lavender, pictures shown of Goats Rue, (multiple flower) and Alpine Basil Thyme.
Borage Plant Family: Starflower has blue flowers, nearly all herbs are good to have in the garden and they are pretty. Why does it help a plant to have long tubular flower? The proboscis of the bee, the tongue is long and plants have developed to attract also honeybees and also Bumblebees.
Lungwort, the flowers start of pink then turns blue, about now, March useful to beekeepers and bees.
Vipers Bugloss pink and blue flower flowers mid-summer and has long stamens. The flower can afford to give back to the bees in payment for pollinating.
Zygomorphism - bilateral symmetry. Each half is the same; certain flowers are bilateral and bees are attracted to these flowers. Most of the flowers will have a lower lip for the bees to land on, landing stage. The sternotribic form has stamens in lower lip, when the bee lands the pollen is released and the bees showered. Wonderful adaptations for getting to them and getting the bees to take the pollen to another flower, remembering the bees are faithful to flowers.
Betony and Downy Woundwort, have gatherings of flowers up the stem. Composite flowers Asteraceae, the dandy loin are full of little florets each has male and female parts - the bit in the middle like the Sunflower. Keeps bees busy for a long time a lot of pollinating done as well. Bees do repeat visits as flowers come out. Daisy attracts flies not bees. Pictures show the stamens sticking out white on the Purple Milk Thistle. Globy Artichoke is a round blue flower. The White Globy thistle dirty cream and wasps love them, red and yellow flowers wasps love.
Hemp Agrimony and Jo-Pye Weed a must for the garden, tubular, right colour, multiple flower heads for repeat visits. Onion family: Rose Leek, grow chives and Welsh onions, focus on blue and pink ones. Butterflies also love the onion family. Bees avoid double flowers they have no nectar, no insects inside them. The more double the less nectar in them.
With tubula flowers the bees will cheat and bore a hole in the side of the tube to take the nectar. The plant and bee tries to out smart each other. In the Monkshood bees bore their hole and the plant fails to be pollinated.
Nectar Guides: lines pointing to middle, we can’t always see them but a bee can.
Houseflies can stick to ceiling but they cannot fly upside down and hover but bees can. The long tongued bees that can hover and fly upside down and pollinate tubular flowers.
Although the bees prefer the blue colours they do go to the yellows if they have no choice. Crocus’ at this time of year offers a lot of pollen. St John’s Wort yellow flower produces false stamens, the bees thus are fooled to think it has a lot of pollen. Winter aconite flowers in the new year bees go to it although yellow as it has pollen when it is needed the most.
Flowers in spires the bee will fly to the bottom and works upwards, male to female and works the same each flower again and again as the flowers come out. Korean Mint is superb, all the Sages and Foxglove for the Bumblebee. Orchids resemble a bee that a drone will try and mate with it and so pollinate the plant. Thyme is culinary one, Peeping Tom and Valerian a cure for sleepless nights, can change personality if you take too much Hitler is said to have used Valerian.
The perfect bee plant would need to have: purple colour, multiple flower heads, Zygomorphic form, hidden trajectory making it difficult for other insects, landing stage, nectar guide, spire, profusion of pollen. No one flower has all those things.
Margaret was an enthusiastic clear speaker and made it an enjoyable hour listening and looking at the many slides she had prepared.