We all enjoyed a fascinating and really informative talk on 7 th April: David Coop
spoke to us about “Flowers and Bees – a Perfect Partnership”. He is a long-time
beekeeper and plant scientist with a wide-ranging knowledge about both plants
and bees. As he put it, they form a perfect symbiosis where two organisms live
in association with each other, both benefitting from the relationship.
The evolution of bees as intentional pollinators started 100 million years ago,
well before the dinosaurs. They evolved: a BUZZ to shake pollen loose; a
specialism for certain flowers; a longer tongue to reach into those flowers; a
hairy pollen-catching body; and a dance. Some of the pollen is put it into
baskets on their back legs to take back to the hive. It is an amazing source of
protein and nutrients for the bees. The loose pollen on the bee’s body gets
transferred from one plant to another.
Plants attract bees in many ways: through colour, fragrance, shape and size.
They are seasonal, attracting the bees they need to pollinate themselves. Plants
are mainly both male and female. The pollen contains the male gene which
needs to be transferred to the female seed of a nearby plant in order to fertilise
it. As well as pollen, the bees are lured to the plants by their nectar which is a
form of instant energy.
Plants are designed to make best use of their visiting bees: petals form a landing
pad; anthers distribute pollen; the pollen from the bees’ bodies brushes on to
the sticky stigma and enters the ovule which also contains the lovely sugary
nectar. The bees are attracted to the centre of the plants using their ultraviolet
eyesight: they have five eyes, one each side and three in the middle of their
heads. Dandelions that look yellow to us look white with a red centre to bees.
It’s a perfect planning for both the plants and the bees.
Once a bee has found a lovely source of pollen and nectar producing plants, it
will return to the hive and perform the Bee Dance. This forms a figure of 8
where the centre line, or ‘wiggle’, informs all the other 50,000 bees in the hive
where those plants are. The length of the wiggle tells them the distance from
the hive and the position of the wiggle tells them the direction in relation to the
sun. How clever is that?!
Pollen is an amazing source of nutrition providing amino acids, enzymes,
vitamins and minerals. (You can buy it to sprinkle on your breakfast cereal!)
Different pollens vary in their nutritional value: it tends to be high in the spring
and autumn and lower in the summer.
Nectar provides the bees with energy and is found in glands right inside flowers.
It is this that is the source of HONEY. Particularly sugar-filled nectar is provided
by both oil seed rape and horse chestnut flowers. The bees collect it then back
in the hive they transform it through the action of enzymes and ‘fanning’ into
the honey we all love. The fanning removes water from the nectar and goes on
in the hive all the time. The bees store their honey in cells in the hive which they
then cover with wax. When you look at a plate in a beehive you will see that the
bees have the eggs and pupae in the centre surrounded by cells containing
pollen and further out are the honey cells.
How do we attract more bees to our gardens? Look for the RHS ‘Plants for
Pollinators’ symbol (a circle with a bee in the centre) when you go to the garden
centre. Plant plenty of wild plants e.g. foxgloves, clover and honeysuckle; and
plant cultivated plants such as Lavender, Weigela, Sweet William and Verbena
Bonariensis. Avoid double flowers. The key is to plant a wide range of flowers
and to go for unexpected things like ivy and letting your vegetables flower!
Margaret Jackson
