Our previous article suggested that bees led the way in ‘designing’ flower colour, but bees didn’t have it all their own way as some flowers headed off in the direction of birds for their pollination needs.
Flowers’ methods of communicating are at least as sophisticated as any devised by an advertising agency, according to a new study, published in Science Express
Nature’s ability to create iridescent flowers has been recreated by mathematicians at The University of Nottingham. The team of researchers have collaborated with experimentalists at the University of Cambridge to create a mathematical model of a plant’s petals to help us learn more about iridescence in flowering plants and the role it may play [...]
Since 1 January, licensing is obligatory under Natural England’s Class Licence system – requiring registration of the release premises in order to allow improved monitoring of the impacts of these bees on surrounding wildlife and investigation of disease patterns. Natural England said growers should make ‘every attempt’ to register their premises under the new [...]
As beekeepers, we tend to take pollination for granted; after all, pollination is really what bees are all about having evolved specialist features such as plumose hairs and a vegetarian diet but there is a long history behind all this, spanning many millions of years. We reported in April 2011 the [...]
• There are over 650,000 acres of almonds in California, which supply almost 80% of world’s requirements.
• Since all of the almonds are in bloom at one time, over one million honey bee hives are needed for pollination. CCD will continue to significantly impact almond production.
Two New Studies [...]
Bees, Fruits and Money: Decline of Pollinators will have severe impact on nature and humankind.
Two thirds of the crops humans use for food production and the majority of wild plant species depend on pollination by insects such as bees and hover-flies. This ecosystem service, however, provided by nature to humans for free, is [...]
Are honey bees more efficient in the presence of other bees?
Two new studies show why biodiversity is important for pollination services in California almond Agricultural demand for pollination is growing more quickly than the supply of honey bees, the dominant species managed for crop pollination. Increasing the efficiency of pollination represents a [...]
These are interesting solitary bees that play a very important but relatively little known role in pollination. Many solitary bees depend on just one type of flower and so if habitats are lost and certain flowers are lost, so is the bee.
Queen sweat bees ‘choose’ the role of their daughters, according to [...]
Pollinator Co-Evolution not Always Apparent
In research, co-evolution is regarded as a driving force behind the development of a mutual adaptation between two organisms. Bees and flowers are a prime example of this and most of us know that bees working for bees and flowers working for flowers became locked into a sort of [...]
Pollination is such a crucial ‘happening’ that any change in the various pollination parameters can critically affect both pollinator and plant. So what challenges does climate change present? One example of how it affects pollinators and plants is taken from research in the Rocky mountains in the USA.
It’s summer wildflower season in the [...]
A new study into the pollination challenge in the UK has shown that Bumblebees, solitary bees and other wild pollinating insects are much more important for pollinating UK crops than previously thought, say researchers. This is the first time anyone has looked at the contribution from both honeybees and other pollinators on such a [...]
Evolution is an amazing process and this research describes another evolutionary trick that has evolved over time. The recipe for making one species into two requires time and some kind of separation, like being on different islands or something else that discourages gene flow between the two budding species. In the case of [...]
Scientists from the United States and China have discovered the first intact fossil of a mature eudicot, (a type of flowering plant whose membership includes buttercups, apple trees, maple trees, dandelions and proteas). The 125-million-year-old find, described in the journal Nature, reveals a remarkably developed species, leading the scientists to argue for an earlier [...]
The wealth of orchid varieties is down to busy bees and helpful fungi, a new study tells us. In some really painstaking research, a group of international scientists have discovered why orchids are one of the most successful groups of flowering plants—it is all down to their relationships with the bees that pollinate them [...]
Can bees tell if nectar is toxic or not? It seems that once they have found out, they can learn to avoid it.
Honeybees can learn to avoid nectar containing natural plant toxins but will eat it when there is no alternative, scientists at Newcastle University have found. This means that in areas dominated [...]
Bees can see colours but they perceive the world differently to us, including variations in hue that we cannot ourselves distinguish. Now, in some fascinating research, scientists at Queen Mary and Imperial college, University of have developed ‘FReD’ — the Floral Reflectance Database—which holds data on what colours flowers appear to be, to bees. [...]
THE SECRET WEAPON OF THE ALMOND TREE
It seems incredible that the almond secretes a poison in its nectar so as to attract pollinators. New research tells us why this contradiction occurs.
Has the almond tree developed a unique way of drawing potential pollinators? A group of researchers at the Department of Environmental and [...]
FEARS OF A DECLINE IN BEE POLLINATORS CONFIRMED
Most people who read the newspapers have begun to realise that pollination decline is something to take seriously but is there any researched evidence to show that this is happening and why is it happening? Well there is now! A recent University of Toronto study provides [...]
Charles Darwin’s ‘abominable mystery’ has come somewhat closer to being solved by this fascinating piece of research which shows us just how pollinators are able to influence the shape of a flower.
For the past 10 years, José María Gómez and Francisco Perfectti of the University of Granada in Spain have used [...]
Gardeners must unite to save Britain’s wildlife, experts urge. To encourage urban biodiversity, neighbours should co-ordinate their gardening efforts to create a network of interlinking habitats where birds, bees and mammals can flourish.
“Gardens don’t exist in isolation, they link together to form interconnected habitat networks that should be planned [...]
PLANTING FOR BEES. IS IT WORTH IT?
There have been many stories of pollinator/bee decline in recent years, but can something practical be done about this? Recent research suggests that in future, bee pastures may help pollinators prosper— wildflowers might someday be planted in ‘bee pastures,’ floral havens created as an efficient, practical, environmentally [...]
Transgenic crops: How do genes jump from crop to crop?
Most beekeepers are keenly aware that the main aim of their charges is to transfer pollen from flower to flower and they are also aware that this can also mean the transfer of genes via pollen dispersal. But do we [...]
