Pollinators like lacecap hydrangeas better than mobheads
A five-year trail conducted by Mt. Cuba Center Botanic Garden in Hockessin, Delaware, found that as far as pollinators are concerned, lacecap hydrangeas have the best value.
Lacecaps have hundreds of fertile flowers that produce both pollen and nectar that attract a variety of insects, but mobheads have many sterile flowers that make the few fertile flowers hidden within harder for pollinators to access. Read the full report at: https://mtcubacenter.org by clicking on their “research” section.
Can’t tell one hydrangea from another? FTD has wonderful explanations with photos. See: https://www.ftd.com/blog/share/types-of-hydrangeas
Bees are smarter than we thought and may have emotions, too
Researchers are discovering that bees can count, solve problems, recognize human faces and communicate with other bees about memories. Those are the conclusions of Lars Chittka, author of the book “The Mind of a Bee” and a professor at Queen Mary University of London. “We now know that sophisticated minds are all around us in the animal queendom – not just in close relatives of humans such as chimps and apes,” Chittka wrote in a long article for The Washington Post. “Now we are learning just how smart insects can be,” he writes, “And we now have evidence of emotion-like states [in bees], using the same criteria that researchers employ to evaluate whether domestic animals such as goats or horses are being kept in conditions that result in a positive or negative outlook on life.”
The Washington Post article is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/bee-cognition-insect-intelligence-research/
Read the wonderful introduction to “The Mind of a Bee” at the Amazon.com website and click on “Look Inside.”
Nectar isn’t the only “energy drink” plants provide for insects
A study by Rutgers University researchers found that many plants exude from their leaves carbohydrate and protein-rich droplets that feed beneficial insects. These nutrient-rich droplets are secreted as xylem sap from the pores at the leaf edges of certain plants, most notably blueberry plants. Learn more here: Plant droplets serve as nutrient-rich food for insects: First study of its kind reveals the benefits of droplets on leaves -- ScienceDaily
Image of lacecap hydrangea flower by maeterlinck
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