January is a great time to start implementing healthy wholesome eating plans – for our bees!
Just like us, native bees thrive on a range of colourful natural plants. Creating a happy and healthy garden for pollinators can be simply a matter of selecting a few choice plants. Here are a few to help ensure your yard or balcony is buzzing!
We have featured some with long flowering periods, helping to provide a year-round supply of pollen and nectar:
Dianella
Dianella is widely found in Australia and grows in highly variable conditions, mainly in sclerophyll, woodland, and mallee forests. This species flowers from spring to summer and has blue to purple inflorescences. Dianella is buzz-pollinated by native bees. Buzz pollination or sonication is when bees collect pollen from anthers by shivering their flight muscles. This technique works especially well with flowers like Dianella. Dianella's anthers only have a small opening to release the pollen. When the female bees come to collect the pollen, they grab the anther by landing, vibrating the pollen onto their bodies for transport.
Australian native daisy
The Australian Daisy grows in well-drained soil but is adaptable to most soil types – except wet clay. Its blooming season is year-round, peaking in late winter and throughout spring. The Australian Daisy is principally self-pollinated, but some cross-pollination can occur. Specifically, bees transfer pollen between the male and female reproductive organs of a plant from each flower. When a bee lands on a flower, it will seek out nectar immediately. During this process, it picks up thousands of tiny pollen particles on its body. The same bee might revisit different blossoms on a daisy plant multiple times to make sure it has as much nectar as possible before taking it back to the hive, where it will eventually turn into honey.
Australian native violet
The Australian Violet can be found as a blanketed beauty alongside streams, waterfalls, and ponds. Its blooming season is usually through the spring and summer, while in warmer locations blooming may occur all year-round. Violet flowers are perfectly designed for pollinators, especially the early small bees and flies that emerge when ground temperatures first warm. The lower petal is a great landing platform, guiding the bees to the nectar. Violets are pollinated primarily by sweat bees, mason bees, and occasionally bumblebees; they thrive in wet and partial shade as well and can be a great source of early spring colour in woodland gardens.
Grevillea
Grevilleas, which are also known as spider flowers, blossom for months with pink and yellow flowers that look like spiders’ feet. The main habitat of this species is in south-Western Australia. Of the 350 species of grevilleas, 150 are mainly distributed in the red soil sandy land and granite outcrops in Western Australia. They prefer sunshine, dry, well-drained sites and are adapted to poor soils that lack nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.A large number of Grevillea species are insect-pollinated. Beetles, flies and bees are all Grevilleas’ pollinators. Most types of this species are suitable for birds to pollinate, while mammal pollination and nectar-feeding on Grevillea have also occurred. Flowers may take months to bloom and spring-flowering plants have ripe fruit ready for collecting by summer.
Lilly pilly
The Lilly Pilly (Australian cherry) is an evergreen or hedgerow tree that produces edible red or purple fruit. It is easy to establish, will grow in the sun or shade and is not fussy about soil. As a native of the Australian rainforest, the Lilly Pilly generally grows well in most settings and is pretty hardy. Lilly Pillies provide significant ecosystem services such as pollination and habitat for birds, and offer a steady stream of nectar and pollen for bees. So far, bees are the only insects observed visiting fully open flowers.
All images from Gardening with Angus