Lip Smacking Deliciousness: Pollen and Nectar

Allium sphaerocephalum an attractive nectar source for bees and some butterflies

It's summer and the  flowers are  open for business.  Pollen is ready and the nectar is flowing. It's the perfect time to watch the bees (and other pollinators)  that live in your garden. 

This morning~Bee on Agastache 'Golden Jubilee'

Bees are fascinating looking creatures. They  are beautifully and perfectly adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen.  They  have a  proboscis for reaching deeply into a flower for nectar  and  hairy bodies that catch the pollen as they move from flower to flower.

last fall

Bees aren't in the business of pollinating, that's incidental to their primary task~finding food and raising the next generations!

They are as busy as...well, as bees can be.   They need nectar for energy and pollen for  their offspring/larvae.

Pollen is the  fine dust-like grains or powder formed within the anther of a flowering plant,  that must be transported from the stamen to the pistil for reproduction to occur. 

Nectar is a sweet and rich carbohydrate liquid made of amino acids, vitamins, metal ions and even protein.  (source)  It's the perfect energy booster and food for bees and other pollinators.

 Flowers produce nectar to  attract bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, bats and hummingbirds.  While collecting the nectar, pollinators transfer pollen from male flowers to female flowers.  Nature cleverly designed it to happen that way!   The floral nectaries, where nectar is produced,  are positioned at the base  of the perianth insuring that the bee's hairy body will  brush the flower's  anthers and pistil (reproductive system) and pick up those pollen grains.

Bees need regular sources of pollen and nectar.  They need energy to fuel their busy bee-ness and pollen and nectar for their young. Honeybees collect nectar and make honey for the hive residents, but, native bees make a concoction of bee saliva, nectar and pollen to feed their offspring.

Agastache is a bee magnet in my garden

I know, I've written this before~ If you want to attract bees and other pollinators to your garden:

• plant large swathes of pollinator friendly,  nectar and pollen producers
• plant host plants~don't stop at nectar and pollen plants
• plan for bloom from late spring to early winter.
• bee sure to include water
• provide nesting sites for a variety of visitors, some bare ground (ix-nay on the plastic landscape cloth) and decaying logs and even special bee houses
• Be aware that some new cultivars are not pollinator friendly.  When plants are bred to bloom for a very long time,  to be disease resistant or to have especially big, colorful flowers they might not make pollen or nectar.

Cleome 'Senorita Rosalita' is stunningly beautiful, but, completely sterile with NO visitors since she was planted!

Those plants go into containers to look pretty~Not in the  limited space in my Susan's  bed.


xxoogail

PS Now, please  raise your camera and solemnly swear that your will never, ever, ever, ever, ever use pesticides in your garden.  Now don't you feel better for having made that commitment!

In case you want to read earlier pollinator posts~

Now Is The Time To Bee-gin Thinking About Bees ( here)
This Is The Place To Bee ( here)
If You Could Plant Only One Plant In Your Garden~Don't (here)
Must Bee The Season of The Witch (here)
Go Bare In Your Garden (here)
We can't All Be Pretty Pollinators (here)
Eye, Eye Skipper, Big Eyed Pollinators (here)
What's In Your Garden (here)
Carpenter Bees (here)
Got Wildflowers?(here)
It's Spring and A Gardener's Thoughts Are On Pollinators (here)
The Wildflower and The Bee (here)
A Few Good Reasons To Plant Milkweek (here)
Got Shade? You Can Have Pollinators (here)
Royalty In The Garden (here)
A Pollinator friendly Shrub (here)
Big Goings On at C and L (here)

Other bee posts you might want to read~
Count Yourself Lucky To Have Hoverflies (here)
Bumblebee Hotel (here)
Still Taking Care Of Bzzness (here)
My Sweet Embraceable You (here)

Bee clip art (here)


This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011.This work protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.