Part of the critical members of the ecosystem is bees. It is measured that the level of dependency on pollinators by some leading food crops approximate 75%. Due to loss of food and habitat through suburban and urban development, however, it is a total struggle for native bee population.
The positive aspect of this situation is that bees can get their carbohydrates and proteins from thousands of flowers with high-quality nectar and pollen by a single shrub or tree.
As a result, there is a high level of encouragement from many resources to land care managers and homeowners to create bee-friendly environments. Even with all these recommendations, there is no scientific backing on most of the plants in the list.
That is why Dr. Daniel Potter of Urban Landscape Entomology Insect-Plant Relationships, Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky posed to rectify this problem by taking a survey.
Dr. Potter survey included 72 woody plant species of native and non-native in 5 sample locations throughout the Ohio Valley region to document which species attract which bees. He summarized his findings in the webcast "Woody Plants for Urban Bee Conservation."
Woody plants like eastern redbud recorded visits of species of bees like honey bees, bumble bees, sweat bees, and some others. Other woody plants that also attract different species of bees include.
- Higan cherry attracts mining bees, sweat bees, leaf-cutter bees, mason bees, and so on.
- PG Hydrangea gets visits from bees like bumble bees, honey bees, and sweat bees.
- Cherry laurel attracts sweat bees and mining bees.
Dr. Potter also discovered that plants with double petal flowers may not attract bees due to their horticultural modification for reasons of aesthetic. And while non-native plants tend to prolong the flowering season, diverse communities of bees get their attraction from both native and non-native plants.
Here are some of the bee-friendly plants.
1. Fuzzy deutzia
2. Summersweet Clethra
3. Buttonbush
4. Virginia spiraea
5. St. John's Wort
6. Dwarf fothergilla
7. Winterberry holly
8. Glossy abelia
And apart from the fact that his list of the best bee-magnet plants is attractive to homeowners, they are also pest free. At the end of his presentation, Potter lists the best woody plants and also gives recommendations for building a landscape that is bee-responsive.
Part of his suggestions is planting different types of shrubs and trees that bloom at different times of the growing season. One of such plant that thrives in the early spring is cornelian cherry dogwood, the summer season plant like bottlebrush buckeye, and the autumn's seven sons flower tree that can offer excellent floral resources all through the winter.
