The Mason Bee (Blue Orchard Bee) House is fully occupied. They were extremely active building nests until a few days ago. Now they mature, and we'll see how many emerge next spring. #Gardening #Pollinators #MasonBees #BOBS
Oriental poppy with an honest to goodness honey bee at work.
In recent years, honey bees are few and far between around here. I’m sure that most of the pollinating on my fruit trees is done by smaller, native bees.
Lacy #phacelia aka #purple#tansy is native to NW Mexico & SW USA - it's in the borage family. I've been using them as part of #pollinators#garden & as a natural aphids #PestControl for food plants. This pretty flowering #plant attracts hoverflies & those insects love eating aphids. When it's done flowering - you can cut it down & use cuttings as #GreenManure.
I’m back from my mom’s condominium, where the excessively manicured sprayed and poisoned landscapes are barren of bees and butterflies. So glad to be in my garden where the wild things are. Here is a great big bumblebee busy at work in our front yard.
Went out to feed the birds this a.m. & saw something "mounted" to a back porch support beam. Closer inspection revealed it was a very large #moth. My ID app suggests Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) with an average wingspan of 6". It was just chilling during the a.m. storms. I hoped it would open up but it just stayed motionless. It was quite dark so the pics aren't the best. Antennae are very cool!
(05/02/24)
Some Beggarticks (Bidens sp.) at a garden center today. Beggarticks are important pollinator plants and sometimes known as Spanish needles.
Beggarticks are examples of zoochory, seeds are physically transported by animals to other places, specifically epizoochory.
My lino print with collaged Japanese washi papers on a white mulberry leaf paper with bark inclusions shows blossoming cherry branches & two of our wild, native bees: the bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) and the Blue Orchard Mason Bee (Osmia lignaria). I printed it by hand on Japanese kozo (or mulberry paper), 16” x 20” with various collaged Japanese washi papers for the blossoms, bee bodies and wings.🧵
Many cherry species require insect #pollinators. Farmers usually use honeybees, but not only are honeybees difficult to maintain, they are an introduced species which can endanger the biodiversity of native bees, here in North America, because they can out-compete native bees for pollen and introduce bee pathogens into the wild. But cherry blossoms are popular with many of our hundreds of native bee species, notably the mason bees and bumblebees in particular. 🧵2/3
Given my inordinate fondness for #pollinators of #cacao, I was very excited to discover a UK "cousin" in my office today, hanging out on the windowframe. Beautiful female Ceratopogonidae (did not attempt ID). I have a theory that if we were able to farm #cocoa in the UK, species of #Ceratopogonidae already present here would turn up and start visiting the flowers. UK has over 150 Ceratopogonidae species, including members of the main genera considered to pollinate cacao in the tropics.
Late for the UK- but since I'm home/not yet outdoors on a Sunday afternoon and just at the edge of the growing season, here's a post for #WildflowerHour ! Photos from last week, #FirstFlowers of the season: #Aspen -Populus tremuloides +Willow- one of our several native #Salix species. Bonus #pollinators non-native #honeybee on the Aspen- supposed to be wind pollinated! + one of several types of #flies seen on the Willows (along with honeybees) #Alberta#Spring#Canada#bees#florespondence
It’s #spring and the #flowers are blooming, which means that #Bees have got a good supply of food. They particularly seem to like the small flowers of the #Cotoneaster plant in the front #garden and throughout a #SunnyDay, there are always several dozen on it.