The Bee and Thistle
With a title that sounds like a pub name the bee here is a bumblebee, also written bumble bee, is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. It is the only extant genus in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera (e.g., Calyptapis) are known from fossils. Over 250 species are known, found primarily in higher latitudes or at higher altitude in the Northern Hemisphere, although they also occur in South America; however, a few lowland tropical species are known. European bumblebees have been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania.
Bumblebees are social insects which form colonies with a single queen; colonies are smaller than those of honey bees, consisting often of fewer than 50 individuals in a nest. Female bumblebees can sting, repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals.
Bumblebees have round bodies covered in soft hair (long, branched setae), called pile, making them appear and feel fuzzy. They have warning coloration, often in bands, in combinations of black, yellow, orange/red, and white. They are best distinguished from similarly large, fuzzy bees by the form of the female hind leg, which is modified to form a pollen basket: a bare shiny concave surface, surrounded by a fringe of hairs used to transport pollen (in similar bees, the hind leg is completely hairy, and pollen grains are wedged into the hairs for transport).
Like their relatives the honey bees, bumblebees feed on nectar, using their long hairy tongues to lap up the liquid; the proboscis is folded under the head for flight. Bumblebees gather pollen to feed their young. They forage using colour and spatial relationships to identify flowers to feed from. Some bumblebees exhibit "nectar robbing", making a hole near the base of a flower to access the nectar while avoiding pollen transfer. Bumblebees are important agricultural pollinators, so their decline in Europe, North America, and Asia is a cause for concern.
The species here looks very much like an The early bumblebee or early-nesting bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) is a small bumblebee with a wide distribution in most of Europe and parts of Asia.
It flies early (hence its name), usually from March to July, but in milder climates, as parts of southern England, it can appear as early as February. However, the large earth bumblebee is normally even earlier.
Its habitat is very wide ranging, including fields, parks, scrubland, and sparse forest. It is common in most of the mainland United Kingdom, but less so in north-west of Scotland. It is absent from most Scottish islands, Orkney, and Shetland. The bee feeds on flowering plants with short corollae, as white clover, thistles, sage, lavender, Asteraceae, cotoneaster, and Allium.
The thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the plant against herbivorous animals, discouraging them from feeding on the plant. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape of a cup or urn subtends each of a thistle's flowerheads.
The term thistle is sometimes taken to mean exactly those plants in the tribe Cynareae (synonym: Cardueae), especially the genera Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum. However, plants outside this tribe are sometimes called thistles, and if this is done thistles would form a polyphyletic group.
Thistle is the floral emblem of Scotland.
The species here looks very much like a Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) which is a species of the genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe (north to 66°N, locally 68°N), western Asia (east to the Yenisei Valley), and northwestern Africa (Atlas Mountains). It is also naturalised in North America and Australia and is as an invasive weed in some areas. It is this species that is the national flower of Scotland.
The Spear Thistle is designated an "injurious weed" under the UK Weeds Act 1959, and a noxious weed in Australia and in nine US states. Spread is only by seed, not by root fragments as in the related Creeping Thistle C. arvense. It is best cleared from land by hoeing and deep cutting of the taproot before seeds mature; regular cultivation also prevents its establishment.
Spear Thistle is often colonises bare disturbed ground, but also persists well on heavily grazed land such as here on Basingstoke Common as it is unpalatable to most grazing animals. The flowers are a rich nectar source used by numerous pollinating insects, including Honey bees, Wool-carder bees, and many butterflies. The seeds are eaten by Goldfinches, Linnets and Greenfinches. The seeds are dispersed by wind, mud, water, and possibly also by ants; they do not show significant long-term dormancy, most germinating soon after dispersal and only a few lasting up to four years in the soil seed bank. Seed is also often spread by human activity such as hay bales.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_bumblebee
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirsium_vulgare
The Bee and Thistle
With a title that sounds like a pub name the bee here is a bumblebee, also written bumble bee, is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. It is the only extant genus in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera (e.g., Calyptapis) are known from fossils. Over 250 species are known, found primarily in higher latitudes or at higher altitude in the Northern Hemisphere, although they also occur in South America; however, a few lowland tropical species are known. European bumblebees have been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania.
Bumblebees are social insects which form colonies with a single queen; colonies are smaller than those of honey bees, consisting often of fewer than 50 individuals in a nest. Female bumblebees can sting, repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals.
Bumblebees have round bodies covered in soft hair (long, branched setae), called pile, making them appear and feel fuzzy. They have warning coloration, often in bands, in combinations of black, yellow, orange/red, and white. They are best distinguished from similarly large, fuzzy bees by the form of the female hind leg, which is modified to form a pollen basket: a bare shiny concave surface, surrounded by a fringe of hairs used to transport pollen (in similar bees, the hind leg is completely hairy, and pollen grains are wedged into the hairs for transport).
Like their relatives the honey bees, bumblebees feed on nectar, using their long hairy tongues to lap up the liquid; the proboscis is folded under the head for flight. Bumblebees gather pollen to feed their young. They forage using colour and spatial relationships to identify flowers to feed from. Some bumblebees exhibit "nectar robbing", making a hole near the base of a flower to access the nectar while avoiding pollen transfer. Bumblebees are important agricultural pollinators, so their decline in Europe, North America, and Asia is a cause for concern.
The species here looks very much like an The early bumblebee or early-nesting bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) is a small bumblebee with a wide distribution in most of Europe and parts of Asia.
It flies early (hence its name), usually from March to July, but in milder climates, as parts of southern England, it can appear as early as February. However, the large earth bumblebee is normally even earlier.
Its habitat is very wide ranging, including fields, parks, scrubland, and sparse forest. It is common in most of the mainland United Kingdom, but less so in north-west of Scotland. It is absent from most Scottish islands, Orkney, and Shetland. The bee feeds on flowering plants with short corollae, as white clover, thistles, sage, lavender, Asteraceae, cotoneaster, and Allium.
The thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the plant against herbivorous animals, discouraging them from feeding on the plant. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape of a cup or urn subtends each of a thistle's flowerheads.
The term thistle is sometimes taken to mean exactly those plants in the tribe Cynareae (synonym: Cardueae), especially the genera Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum. However, plants outside this tribe are sometimes called thistles, and if this is done thistles would form a polyphyletic group.
Thistle is the floral emblem of Scotland.
The species here looks very much like a Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) which is a species of the genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe (north to 66°N, locally 68°N), western Asia (east to the Yenisei Valley), and northwestern Africa (Atlas Mountains). It is also naturalised in North America and Australia and is as an invasive weed in some areas. It is this species that is the national flower of Scotland.
The Spear Thistle is designated an "injurious weed" under the UK Weeds Act 1959, and a noxious weed in Australia and in nine US states. Spread is only by seed, not by root fragments as in the related Creeping Thistle C. arvense. It is best cleared from land by hoeing and deep cutting of the taproot before seeds mature; regular cultivation also prevents its establishment.
Spear Thistle is often colonises bare disturbed ground, but also persists well on heavily grazed land such as here on Basingstoke Common as it is unpalatable to most grazing animals. The flowers are a rich nectar source used by numerous pollinating insects, including Honey bees, Wool-carder bees, and many butterflies. The seeds are eaten by Goldfinches, Linnets and Greenfinches. The seeds are dispersed by wind, mud, water, and possibly also by ants; they do not show significant long-term dormancy, most germinating soon after dispersal and only a few lasting up to four years in the soil seed bank. Seed is also often spread by human activity such as hay bales.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_bumblebee
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirsium_vulgare