Western Honey Bee attraction to Rosemary

The Western Honey Bee seems to have a preference for Rosemary second only to the Yellow Trumpet Flower (genus Tecoma). Despite the rosemary flowers being small, they are bright violet and the plant has a strong odor. The bees move from one flower to the next very quickly (about a second or two), whereas they spend about 5-10 seconds on one flower from the genus Tecoma. The bees visit MORE flowers on the rosemary bush before flying away than they do with the Yellow Trumpet Flower. This leads to the hypothesis that perhaps the smaller rosemary flowers have less pollen yield, but still serve some advantage or are easier to locate, as they are visited more frequently than some other larger flowers, such as the Baja Fairy Duster and the Peacock Flower.

Posted on Δεκέμβριος 11, 2017 0122 ΠΜ by laurenluvbug