Galanthus and bees

Tom Brown tom@yfelin.plus.com
Fri, 09 Jan 2015 12:49:13 PST
Hi Travis. I have both honey bees and Galanthus and see honey bees on
the Galanthus every year. The first of our Galanthus are out this week
but due to high winds and ongoing wet weather there are no bees about.
The bees were flying on a warm sunny afternoon about 10 days ago.
I is now 20.30 hrs. here now and the outdoor temp. is 14.5C, amazing!
Tom.   Mid Wales UK. Zone 8








-----Original Message-----
From: T O <enoster@hotmail.com>
Reply-to: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [pbs] Galanthus and bees
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 15:57:08 -0800

Hello,

I'm curious if anyone has seen bees or flies on their Galanthus? I have no flowers here here so far, just lots of leaves appearing everywhere. Anecdotes say Galanthus are "good early bulbs for bees" but I have never witnessed this myself, and I want to know if it's true. Seems like it would be too cold for bees. Flies maybe? What could the natural pollinators be of such an early blooming flower?

A good question for the galanthophiles: are Galanthus self-compatible or do they require outcrossing to set seed?

-Travis Owen
Rogue River, OR






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