The nursery manufacture betray over $ 4.3 billion worth of ornamental plants in the United States each year , represent a tremendous investment in the appearance of our managed landscapes . Current concerns about the wellness of pollinator generally , and beloved bees in particular , raise the question – Are we serve honey bees with the flower decorative plant we opt ? Beekeepers have honey bee hives in a kitchen range of suburban , urban , and rural environs , and honey bees in mostly cope landscapes could be using the anthesis industrial plant we select as a origin of food .
Scientists from The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station , in collaboration with research worker from the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State University , York University in Toronto , Canada , and the University of Maine , recently addressed that question in a survey of pollen collected by honey bees in three commercial decorative greenhouse .
Pollen is the source of protein , avoirdupois and many mineral for dear bee colonies , with nectar serving the principal source of gelt for energy and dearest yield . The pollen was collected from the dear bee colonies at three commercial ornamental plant nursery in Connecticut using a pollen trap , which removes the pollen from the pollen baskets on the legs of dear bee workers as they repay to the beehive . The plant from which the honey bees gather up pollen were identified using two techniques : palynology , the recognition of pollen grain using microscopic structures ; and DNA metabarcoding , matching cistron extracted from the pollen to DNA episode for the same factor from plants .
dear bee at the nurseries collected pollen from a very diverse mixture of plant , with 203 genus identified by either or both of the two method . Five of the most ordinarily observe genera , Rosa , Hydrangea , Solidago ( goldenrod ) , Spiraea , and Viburnum were grow in the nurseries , although they also let in species that grow wild in the area . Other most commonly found genera were plants often considered to be weeds – Trifolium ( trefoil ) , Plantago ( plantain ) , and Ambrosia(ragweed ) – or craw plants like Zea ( corn ) . One unexpected genus was Nymphaea ( water lily ) , which paint a picture that honey bees are looking at our pool plants for pollen more than we realise .
Dr. Kimberly Stoner , senior author of the cogitation , said , “ Perhaps the lesson to be learned is that dear bees have a much wider range of flowers they enjoy than we humankind do ! They can benefit from the bloom ornamental we engraft and from our weeds , too . ”
Another facial expression of the study was to liken the two methods of pollen identification . Neither method acting was clearly ranking – each found some plant genera that the other miss . DNA metabarcoding is still a young method acting of pollen identification , and further body of work is postulate before it will be able to substitute palynology .
This study was funded by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection , with extra backing from the Specialty Crops Research Initiative of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture .
This newspaper is freely available online atwww.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-57858-2
