Flowers Attracting Our Vital Bees

Bees are one of our great pollinators – Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Alan Wright looks at why insects are so important for our plants for and us.

Buff-tailed bumblebee have some of the largest nests, producing up to 500 workers - photo Alan Wright “One third of our food relies on pollination”

A tree bumblebee finds a nice Cosmos by Alan Wright

Many millions of years ago, flowers would stand around waiting for the wind to blow grains of pollen in their direction

The pollen was launched from one flower’s stamen in the vain hope of hitting the female stigma of its distant relatives – this required a lot of pollen.

This method of fertilisation was a rather hit-and-miss affair and it is still around for some grasses and cereal crops, but it really needed something a little more reliable.

So along came the insects and some rather clever scheming by the flowers. The plan was to persuade the insect to touch the stamen and pick up the pollen and then flutter or buzz over to another flower’s stigma.

But how do you persuade a bee to land on your sexy bits? Sorry, but it all comes down to sex here. First of all, you offer them a substance they cannot resist, nectar – a sugary and sweet tasting temptation that they cannot do without.

And let’s get them to the nectar by squirting out sweet aromas. Those are the lovely smells that we notice when we bend down to sniff flowers. Admit it, you bend down and smell flowers when nobody is watching?

Some flowers also have “landing lines”, directing insects right into the stigma – patterns on their petals and leaves. Or they have evolved into trumpets with the sweet spot at the far end. How I love to hear bees inside trumpet flowers, like foxgloves, buzzing with delight, “I have found the nectar, yummy.” This amazing fertilisation has helped our plants to grow and spread out across the landscape. It means we are treated to wonderful smells and colours so we can enjoy those flowers as much as the insects. Insects will be out and about now as summer draws closer and some people will say they are terrified because bees and wasps sting. That is generalising a bit to say the least, because there are tens of thousands of types of bees and wasps and most of them don’t sting.

Then again, most of us wouldn’t recognise them as bees and wasps, because they come in many shapes and sizes. And then there are

Tree bumblebees are some of the earliest to emerge from February onwards - photo Alan Wright

Red tailed bumblebee by Alan Wright (2)