Growing With Science Blog

It’s time to start thinking about another citizen science project:  The Great Sunflower Project at www.greatsunflower.org.

The sunflower project involves growing a specific type of sunflower, Lemon Queen, and recording the types and how many bees come to visit the flowers.

This year the organizers are asking the participants to buy their own seeds because they can not fulfill the orders for the huge number of requests they received last year.

If you are interested in participating, the first step is to go to the website and register.  You will  find more instructions there and get future newsletters with information and updates.

The sampling protocol has been simplified a bit. This year you and your children will:
1) count the number of flowers on your plant with pollen;
2) record all bees (not just the first 5) your sunflower for 15 minutes; and
3) enter the data online.

Our family participated last year. I have to say I hadn’t had much success growing sunflowers before, but these Lemon Queen variety seeds grew beautifully.

We had quite a few bees visiting, although no honey bees.

Did you participate last year?

Let us know, we’d love to hear from you.

We have a lot of honey bees active on our fairy duster and rosemary plants this week.

Any idea what these honey bees are doing?

If you came to visit us, you might wonder why we have old hollyhock stalks still standing in our garden. I know my husband does!

If you look very closely, you might find a clue.

The hole is a sign that something is living inside. When we opened one of the stalks recently we found:

The pithy center of the stalk had been hollowed out and a small carpenter bee had made cells for her offspring.

The bee would have started by creating a cavity. She would prepare a small ball of bee bread, a mixture of pollen and nectar. When the bee bread was ready, she would lay an egg on it and close the end with a plug of plant material. (It looks like sawdust here). Then she would make some more bee bread and repeat the process until the cavity was full. Within each cell, a larva would hatch from the egg, eat the bee bread, pupate and then become an adult bee. Eventually the new bees emerge from their chambers.

The adult small carpenter bee ( Genus Ceratina) is dark blue, greenish or black. It is much smaller than the regular carpenter bee, hence the name.

You might wonder if the tunneling by the bee harms the plant. It turns out that the living part of the plant is in the outside tissue that is not disturbed. Because a hollow tube is very nearly as strong as a solid one, the stalks are no more likely to break. Bees, like small carpenter bees, are important pollinators and should be encouraged whenever possible.