Bee pollination is essential for many plants. But how does bee pollination actually work? This article tells you everything you need to know about pollination by bees.
In summer you can see it almost everywhere: Bees fly busily from flower to flower in search of nectar and pollen. While the hard-working animals are looking for food in the garden, they also perform another important task - pollination. In fact, around 80 percent of all flowering plants depend on pollination by beneficial insects such as bees. But not only does biodiversity benefit from pollination by the busy animals, hobby gardeners can also look forward to bees in the garden. In fact, bee pollination increases the yield and quality traits of many crops such as apples (Malus) or cherries (Prunus). But how does this actually work? In this article you will learn everything you need to know about bee pollination.
How does bee pollination work?
Honey and wild bees play an important role in pollination of plants. The plants even compete with each other to ensure that the bees fly at them: Each plant tries to attract the attention of the pollinator bee with its scents and flower colour. In addition, the flowers hide pollen and nectar inside, which are the food base for the busy bees. When a bee lands on a flower, it sucks up the flower's nectar with its long proboscis and collects the pollen in the so-called "pollen pants" on its hind legs. Since the bee usually has to go far inside the flower to do this, small pollen get caught on the hair coat of the pollinator.
When the bee flies to the next flower and climbs in to get the sweet nectar, it transfers the pollen to the stigma, i.e. the female plant organ, of the next flower - this is the pollination of the flower by the bee and seeds can ripen in the flower. During a single foraging flight, a bee can pollinate up to 100 flowers.Bees are extraordinarily flower-resistant. This means that they remain true to one plant species throughout their foraging flight, which means that the plants are optimally pollinated by the bees. Honey bees also use various dances to share particularly lucrative food sources with their fellow bees - a single bee colony can pollinate up to 20 million flowers a day.
Summary: Pollination by bees explained simply
- Bees are attracted by flower color and scent.
- Inside the flower there are pollen and nectar, which serve as food for bees.
- When collecting nectar and pollen, pollen sticks to the bee's hair coat.
- The pollen is transferred to the stigma on the next flower - bee pollination has taken place.
- Bees are always flowering and share lucrative locations with their fellows through dances.
What plants do bees pollinate?
Around 800 native plant species depend on pollination by bees, which is why the hard-working insect is one of the most important beneficial insects. A big advantage is the high adaptability of the honey bee: Due to their medium size and their medium-length proboscis, bees can pollinate a wide variety of flowers and show themselves to be real all-rounders. Particularly bee-friendly plants that are frequently pollinated by honey bees are herbs such as thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and sage (Salvia), bee-friendly flowers such as mallow (Malva) or Phacelia (Phacelia) and bee-friendly shrubs like the raspberry (Rubus idaeus) or wild rose (Pink). Trees such as willow trees (Salix) or fruit trees are also pollinated by the animals.
In the case of wild bees, on the other hand, things are a little different: many of the almost 600 species of wild bees are highly specialised. This means that wild bee pollination only works with specific plants (families) depending on the species. The little heather silk bee (Colletes succinctus) has specialized in pollinating heather herbs (Ericaceae), especially common heather ( Calluna vulgaris), while the viper's bugloss bee (Osmia adunca) is strictly geared towards viper's bugloss (Echium). Nevertheless, the pollination power of wild bees should not be underestimated, as they pollinate flowers that honey bees cannot fly to. Thus, the pollination ofWild bees make an important contribution to the conservation of wild flowers and herbs. In order to provide wild bees with the best possible food base, it is therefore worth relying on native wild plants. Flower meadows, which consist of many different types of flowers and herbs - such as the Plantura bee pasture, are particularly suitable. Due to the large number of different plant species, both honey and wild bees find food, which means that you can support the important beneficial insects.
If you want to find out what you have to consider when you want to create a flower meadow or bee pasture yourself, please take a look at our article.