Bees & Environmental Horticulture Plants

  Strong biodiversity is an important factor in maintaining healthy landscapes, wild and agricultural alike. There is a plethora of research that suggests high flowering plant abundance promotes a high pollinator abundance. Some of these studies included biodiversity studies along ecological margins, which are essentially the boundaries between two plant communities. A classic example would […]

While pollinators are in decline, partly due to lack of plant resources, urban, semi-natural, green landscapes have become important resources for pollinator survival. Erica Erickson, a PhD student at Penn State, asked the question of what role, if any, ornamental plants play in the sustainability of the pollinator community? Pollinator visitations from two sites in […]

In January 2020, Nature Research Journal published a scientific report from Sponsler et al. that highlights the importance of pollinator-friendly woody plant genera.  In managed greenspaces, it is often assumed that pollinator communities are supported by a variety of ornamental horticulture. However, Sponsler and our pollinator team members know that many ornamental plants are simply [...]

Agastache foeniculum flower

In the fall of 2018, our team completed another field season tracking the environmental horticulture plants that are visited by pollinators. Some preliminary patterns are now starting to emerge, with a few plant species appearing to be highly attractive to pollinators, but many other plant species are not-at-all attractive to pollinators. In California, for instance, [...]

Various cups filled with varying amounts of small pellets of pollen.

Dr. Kim Stoner and her team have published pesticide residue results from their pollen analysis work. To understand which ornamental horticulture plants bees were visiting, the team had set out honey bee hives in the middle of environmental horticulture plant nurseries. The honey bees would leave the hive and collect pollen from the surrounding flowers; [...]

Groundhog eating white clover flower.

Field work is a wonderful chance to get outside and collect data. When researchers want to study the bees that visit plants, field work usually means being outside on a warm day, looking at flowers and counting bees. Could it be any easier? It turns out that many things can get in the way of [...]

Three people netting bees around a tree.

After countless hours of capturing and identifying the bees that visit woody plants, Drs. Bernadette Mach and Daniel Potter have published their research! Before starting their research, Drs. Mach and Potter saw that many lists of recommended plants for pollinators were not backed with scientific evidence, especially for urban woody plants (i.e. trees and shrubs). [...]

Girl jumping in the air, holding a net and trying to catch bees.

Instructors and Collaborators: Beth Pearson, Lea Corkidi, Leah Taylor, Tony Rangel, James A. Bethke.
Institutions: Palomar College. 1140 West Mission Rd., San Marcos, CA 92069.
University of California Cooperative Extension. 9335 Hazard Way, Suite 201. San Diego CA 92123.

Dirt field with new plants spaced evently in the ground.

In addition to our core plant sites comparing annual and herbaceous perennial ornamental plants [Xlink to previous postX], we established an additional site in California. This site was created to compare levels of pollinator attractiveness between native and non-native nursery and greenhouse plants. This month, our researchers established this field plot by placing 10 plant [...]

Male holding a handheld vacuum with a long tube attached to it.

Our first summer of tracking the pollinators that visit ornamental plants is complete! Throughout the summer, our research teams across five states made morning and afternoon visits to each of our plant sites. During each visit, they counted and identified the pollinators visiting each plant. When a pollinator could not be identified in the field, [...]

A pile of many clumps of pollen spread out on a wire mesh screen.

Our researchers have begun to collect pollen pellets from honey bees. A pollen pellet is a clump of pollen grains resulting from a bee’s travels through flowers. As a honey bee visits each flower, she collects pollen grains, mixes them with a little nectar, and packs them onto her hind leg, forming the pellet. To [...]

Image of farmland, with farmland building and corn fields in the background, and a person sampling in a field of flowers in the foreground.

Our researchers are poised to start taking data on pollinator visits to ornamental plants. Across five states, our researchers established plant sites with a selection of annual and herbaceous perennial plants. All of the plants were selected from the list of top 25 annual and herbaceous perennials by wholesale value—a list generated by the USDA [...]

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Bees & Pests

Daylily, petunia, and pansy flowers, with a hosta plant.

As described in a previous post, growers were surveyed about their production costs, their current and projected uses of pesticides, and their perception on neonicotinoids. We have some preliminary results to report, with more forthcoming in future publications. When it comes to growers’ production costs, we found that production costs vary significantly among growers. Differences [...]

Inside a horticultural plant nursery, with various plants being grown on both sides of the aisle.

Concerns over the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators have prompted suggestions that growers use alternative pest control products. For growers, neonicotinoids are considered very effective in controlling pest and are safe for humans. As a result, neonicotinoids are widely used across the environmental horticulture industry.  It is unclear whether growers think switching to alternative pest [...]

Flowers crowding beds in a greenhouse.

The residue work continues, as our teams are in midst of collecting pollen and/or nectar from snapdragons and rhododendrons. Research teams in California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, and South Carolina are participating in this residue work, and our analytical lab has been busy processing the pollen and nectar samples for residue levels. Our research [...]

Screenshot of starting page for Ecotox Knowledgebase's website.

When growers experience pest outbreaks and need to decide on a pesticide product that will help, an important consideration is the product’s ecotoxicological profile. Ecotoxicology combines the fields of ecology and toxicology, and is the study of how chemicals affect groups of species and the environment. Before approving a pesticide, the EPA requires data on [...]

Close-up of liquid being pipetted into tubes in a laboratory.

To receive reliable measurements of pesticide residue in nectar, pollen, leaves and flower tissue, chemical analytical labs need researchers to collect reasonably large volumes of nectar or pollen. When our project began, our lab needed about 1 mL of nectar, 1 mg of pollen, and 1 g of leaf and flower tissue to produce reliable [...]

Different sized aphids on a plant stem.

Neonicotinoids are a highly effective group of pesticides, but there is concern over their impact on pollinators. If environmental horticulture growers want to avoid using neonicotinoids on the plants pollinators use, they need information on which products are effective in managing pests, as well as which products minimize harmful impacts on the environment. Our team [...]

Cluster of rhododendron flowers with a pipette tip touching the middle of one flower.

Our residue studies have begun! Our research teams have set up experimental plots of rhododendrons in Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, and New Jersey. In the spring, we sampled nectar and pollen from all of our flowering rhododendrons plants. Since we have not yet treated the rhododendrons with any of the pesticides we are testing, this collection [...]

Numerous potted plants flowering in a greenhouse.

In order to understand the nuances of pesticide residue levels in plant pollen and nectar, we needed an experimental design with different active ingredients acting on different plant types. Pesticides differ by their active ingredient(s). Depending on their molecular makeup, pesticides can vary in how they travel through a plant, how they manage a pest, [...]

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Bees & Public Perception

Two honeybees inside a crocus flower.

Researcher: Dr. Hayk Khachatryan

People purchasing plants at an outdoor plant sale.

When it comes to plant labels about neonicotinoid use, does the design or content of a plant label affect a consumer’s willingness to purchase the plant? In our survey, consumers were presented with a range of labeled annual and perennial plants, such as impatiens, marigolds, and chrysanthemums. Each plant was marked with one of four [...]

Six pots of hibiscus flowers with labels hanging overhead.

Our laboratory and online surveys to assess consumer’s attitudes towards pollinator-friendly plants have now been completed. Our research team obtained roughly 200 responses from the laboratory surveys and over 1,500 responses from the surveys conducted online. Our team is in the midst of analyzing this data. One novel piece of information being analyzed is the [...]

Girl looking at computer screen and with her hand on a mouse.

Environmental horticulture growers are interested in growing plants that benefit pollinators, but whether consumers know or care about ‘pollinator-friendly’ plants—at least enough to purchase them—is not clear. Our team has therefore prepared a survey to assess consumers’ knowledge about pollinators, as well as their willingness to pay for pollinator-friendly plants. More specifically, this survey is [...]

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