View allAll Photos Tagged Pollinators
These spiky red flowers bloomed in our backyard during the past week. The ends are covered in yellow pollen, causing all kinds of allergy problems.
Better viewed large.
Pollination by a dronefly
Wild "canola" flowers (Brassica rapa) and a nectar drinking
hoverfly. In this case it is a male of the tapered dronefly (Eristalis pertinax). The anthers of the flowers are touching the hoverfly while it is nectar drinking. Droneflies look like honeybees, especially the male drones. It has the same size and the same proboscis length.
The pollen on the insect (the small yellow dots) will be transported to the next flower where it will be deposited on the stigma. In the visited flower the stigma is the small nob next to the proboscis. The pollen deposition is quite precise, it happens only on certain parts of the insect. This contributes to make it an effective pollinator.
In the flower in the left upper corner a green dot at the bottom of the flower is visible. This is one of the 4 nectar glands each flower provides.
In the population where I took the image, different Eristalis species were the main pollinators of this plant species. This population were situated along a rail road in a city in the middle of the Netherlands.
Many people think, that honeybees and bumblebees are the main pollinators of flowers. But for wild plants very different insects and also flies can play an important role. It is good visible in this image that the length of the flower's anthers and the length of the proboscis of the dronefly match roughly in their size. The fly was also visiting many flowers. Both are an important prerequisite for an effective pollination process.
Female Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) collecting pollen and storing it in the pollen sacs on her hind legs.
Many thanks to all who take the time to view ,comment or fav my images
This project was a bit more involved than originally anticapted. Hopefully the bees and wasp like our handywork and take up residence
Cactaceae: Melocactus intortus; with honey bee (Apidae: Apis sp.)
Guánica State Forest, Puerto Rico
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Monarch butterfly populations have declined over recent decades due to degraded habitat, but Oregon landowners are making great strides to improve monarch habitat on private lands, with technical and financial assistance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Milkweed is a critical component of monarch habitat because it’s the only plant on which they will lay their eggs, and it’s a vital food source for monarch caterpillars. Just one example of this partnership at work is the recent establishment of milkweed clusters on the E4 Ranch easement in Benton County, Oregon. Under this project, NRCS enrolled 192-acres of private land into a 30-year wetland easement in 2005. As part of the easement contract, NRCS and the USFWS provided financial and technical assistance to restore the site to its native wetland prairie condition. Before the restoration, the land was a flat pasture, filled with a single-species of grass for cattle grazing. Now, the site is a diverse landscape filled with native trees, plants, and shrubs—including pollinator habitat such as gumweed and milkweed. NRCS photo by Tracy Robillard.
It was a really hot and sunny day today, but suddenly started raining. So I took the D300 out and tried to shoot some waterdrops and flowers without a flash to see if the sunny day would provide enough light. These pictures are the result of that test.
Bumble just had to roll around in the flower to help with pollination - she hasnt quite sussed that they are cut flowers, not proper live ones!
OK, Folks. There are 26 images in this posting. Please bear with me on this. I wanted to get them all up at one time, so that my friends in the ICPS (International Carnivorous Plant Society) could view them as a set.
Backstory: We made a weekend trip to the Francis Marion National Forest in Berkeley County, South Carolina. I had previously seen some wonderful hybrid pitcher plants (Sarracenia) in bloom around this date for the past few years. However, the forest managers had recently burned the area (prescribed burn) to rid the grassy savannahs of fast-growing woody shrubs which are in direct competition with the carnivorous plants and orchids in the national forest.
I have to say that it was a raving success! This year's crop of unusual hybrid pitcher plant flowers outdid previous years by a long shot!
The star of the show is Sarracenia Xrehderi, which is a cross between Sarracenia minor (hooded pitcher plant) and Sarracenia rubra variety rubra (sweet pitcher plant). Sarracenia minor always has bright yellow flowers, while Sarracenia rubra variety rubra always has dark red flowers. So, you can well imagine the variation in the color of the flowers of the result of the cross pollination. I believe I have even photographed some that neither you nor I imagined!
This is one fantastic site, and I'm grateful that the management of this particular location is keeping on top of the condition of the wide variety of plants in the forest. They do a fantastic job with little thanks from the public...