By Anna Sutton and Kristen Mcmillan
agsutton1@csuchico.edu, kamcmillan@csuchico.edu
Opening:
When spring comes around and you smell the earthy grass smell and flowers start to bloom. It might make you want to plant flowers in your front yard and gardens. Most likely the flowers that you tend to pick are colors that you love or types of flowers that bring you joy. If this is what you do you might get some bees pollinating your garden, but not many. The flower colors you choose for your garden matter more than you might think; bees like certain colors far more than others and even can’t see certain colors at all!
Background:
Bees are major pollinators to flowering plants. They are known to visit blue and purple flowers, like lavender and ceanothus, since bees' photoreceptors are most sensitive to ultraviolet, green, and blue wavelengths as well as the contrast they give off. However, their photoreceptors are least sensitive to red, thus making red the least attractive flower color since it’s basically invisible for them
Main science:
We already know that bees like violet, blue, and green, but we wanted to know what other flower colors they prefer. We tested which flower color preference in two locations, at a home setting and on the Chico State University campus. We tested which colors bees liked best by getting flowers of five different colors (red, pink, yellow, orange, and white) and monitoring the rate at which they visited each color. After observing each color, we ran a statistical analysis and discovered that bees’ visitation rates were highest at white and yellow flowers and lowest at red flowers.
Why care:
Bee pollination is crucial for the wellbeing of our ecosystem, contributing to plant reproduction, and the improvement of crop yield. The bee population is declining due to habitat loss, climate change, pesticides and pathogens. By planting flowers that attract them the most, we can help bee populations thrive and increase the pollination rate of other plants as well.
Takeaway:
If you are planting flowers in your garden, and want to plant your favorite flowers, also include flower colors bees are able to see and prefer, like yellow and white types. The types of flowers we plant in our gardens matter to the ecosystem and these local creatures. By making your gardens more suited to the bees, will you be helping the environment in many ways.
: