05.17.07 BLUEBERRY BLOOM

I almost missed it! The tiny blossoms on the Blueberry bushes hang like little bells of sugar awaiting their insect servants. Once the transfer of genetic material has been completed they create the beautiful crowned berries we love to eat. Can you see that the crowns are just a memory of their blossoming glory?

05.14.07 POLLINATORS PROOF

The apple tree blossoms have set their fruit. The work of all the many insect pollinators will benefit us all this fall. Perhaps we will receive the blessing of a good crop of apples this year. It seems this apple tree's bounty is to be depended on only once every two to three seasons.

04.21.07 BEE CRISIS?

The news on the street, "Cell phones are killing the bees!" Yet I am reassured to see this busy honey bee, Apis mellifera, working the blossoms of my apple tree. The New York Times has reported that the commercial bee industry, especially crop pollinating companies in California, are experiencing a dramatic drop in their bee populations. The causes could be multiple, and most seem to stem from the industrialization of America. But watching this bee work my tree amid the buzz of dozens of insects, many not honeybees at all, reminds me that the pollination of plants is a far more complicated business than we may think.

As a footnote, this evening I discover in the current National Geographic that our wild honey bee is the European honey bee and it is a new arrival to North America. Before the early colonists brought their honey bees from home, America depended solely on a native set of insects for pollination.