Or perhaps I’m an embittered one because I write about soaring food prices, organic farming vs the evils of Monsanto, impending catastrophes like a global shortage of water, the inanities and futility of wars so I suppose I am an elitist, and a bitter one at that! Whichever. The news we get in Europe from the US Primaries are somewhat farcical and anathema to our own expeditious political system: we elect a new head of State within weeks, not years. I would be the first one to concede that it may not be the best system either (look at the Italians, they’ve returned the gangster to power, grrrr…), but then again we don’t have that much time to dwell on the avalanche of moronic pronouncements from the wingnuts ad infinitum. Ignore the clamoring repukes, elect Obama and get on with it. We are all elitists!
As a fellow elitist, I’d like to report some news on the bees and the scent of flowers and why it’s important politicians worldwide should take global warming seriously, not just paying lip service.
Bees, moths, and other insects must rely on scented flowers for food. The flowers they visit also depend on their own fragrances to reproduce, by drawing pollinators in.
A study by Quinn S. McFrederick, James C. Kathilankal, Jose D. Fuentes, published in Atmospheric Environment, shows that air pollution destroys the scent signals of flowers, an effect of bad air that makes pollinators less efficient and plant colonies less robust. Roses and rhododendrons growing in urban parks may look alluring, but traffic fumes and industrial pollutants could be snuffing out their scent.
The discovery might help to explain why bees and other pollinators are in decline around the world. Insects which need nectar for food seek it out by following the scent trails left by flowers. If these are disrupted, foraging for nectar is made more difficult. The plants also suffer because they are less likely to be pollinated or have their pollen carried to other blooms.
Professor Jose Fuentes, from the University of Virginia in the US, one of the study authors, said: “The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 metres. But in today’s polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 metres.”
To investigate their theory, they created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind.
Fragrance molecules produced by flowers are very volatile and quickly bond with pollutant molecules such as ozone, hydroxyl, and nitrate radicals which destroy their aromas. Instead of traveling undisturbed for long distances on the wind, the scent molecules are altered so they no longer smell the way they should. This forces pollinators to search further and longer for sources of nectar, and to rely more on sight than smell.
The scientists calculated scent levels and distances that flower aromas can travel under different air conditions. They ranged from environments typical of unpolluted pre-industrial times to those found today in rural areas downwind from large cities.
We need bees! And to attract them, we need to plant flowers beds that are pollution resistant such as the Ribes sanguineum commonly known as the “Red Flowering Currant, a native to the United States, it is also frost hardy. Choose drought tolerant plants like Nepeta Six Hills Giant (Catmint). It looks like huge lavender flowers but uses very little water. You get the idea. Ask your local nursery as to which flower will suit best an urban environment.
Pollination is the transfer of a flowering plant’s male reproductive cells to a female reproductive receptacle. In a word, it is plant sex. Pollination is how plants have solved the problem of reproducing sexually and with diverse mates (which promotes genetic diversity) while they remain rooted in one place. Effective means of pollination are key to the success of angiosperms–the hundreds of thousands of plants, ranging in size from tiny herbs to tall trees, that rely on flowers for effective pollination. Flowers are highly specialized reproductive organs, adapted for the entire gamut of reproductive functions: advertising, pollination, fertilization, seed development, and dispersal of seeds. Beautiful as most flowers are to us, they are strictly functional to the plant. The shapes, colors, and fragrances that we admire do not exist for our enjoyment. These characteristics serve the plant by enticing animals to visit their flowers and using them, literally, as reproductive vehicles.
Allow my elitist nature to post this important message:
All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.
Tags: , Bees, Environment, Flowers. Scents
7 Comments
Plant away! Lots of flowers, trees, grasses….it’s all good.
Here in the US Pacific Northwest, winter has lingered unduly, and our gray skies have barely budged to reveal the sun since October.
So when the sun finally did come out in the last few days, the change was dramatic. The whole world outside my door smelled like flowers (and I live in the heart of a good-sized city). My yard was alive with hundreds and hundreds of bees.
I’m afraid most of them were hornets, unfortunately.
Anyway, the neighborhood is loaded with flowering trees, and if I can smell them, I’m betting so can the bees. I’ve got a couple of massive flowering shrubs coming into bloom now (a hedge of Otto Luykens laurels and a ginormous ceanothus). Lots of lavender on the way.
I’m sure the hornets will be delighted!
I meant to add: I’m a bitter elitist too. But not so bitter that I think cat-poo coffee is a good idea.
Yes, the incessant white noise coming from idiots such as Hannity & O’Reilly must be really dumbing down the average elitist ;0)
“White” noise is right. Goes well with the white bread, the white sugar, and the white hydrogenated fat in the diets of the braindead people they’re talking to.
Today, I noted the first of my lovely, fat, stumbly bumbly bees flirting with my Jupiter’s beard – which fortunately grows as an invasive in most parts of the US, which makes it perfect for Dallas climate and clay-bake soil!
The evening primroses are invading the beds – and the lawn – nicely, as are the “butter-and-eggs”. These are also very bee-and-butterfly friendly.
The hummingbird vines are greening up beautifully, and the lavender is blooming. So, I hope that my mason bees will burrow out from their underground hidey-holes by May.
Spring is good time of year in Texas.
Same here, we’re having a wonderful spring, still cold for the bees, but hopefully the Nordic winds will eventually stop. Last year we planted 40 apple trees so we should see if the bees are coming back when they flower.
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