PhilinYuma
Well-known member
The most attractive flowers to honey bees in Yuma tend to be desert plants which, like the locals, tend to take siesta at around noon as soon as it becomes warm (ie around 100F [~C 35]). Two flowers in particular are popular with bees at this time of year. One, Fairy Duster, Calliandra eriophylla, displays its bright red flowers for the bees early in the morning, but by noon, they are wilted and dark red and the bees ignore them for the rest of the day.
The second is the Red Bird of Paradise flower, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, (wrongly called the Mexican Bird of Paradise in these parts), whose flowers remain open throughout the morning but apparently stop attracting bees at around midday. The bees, though, exhibit a strange behaviour in relation to this plant that is the occasion of my question. Once they have stopped obtaining nectar from the flowers, they continue to visit the plant, ignore the flowers and run up and down the stems before flying off again. It is not uncommon to see half a dozen bees doing this on one plant at any given time. This behaviour seems to benefit neither the plant nor the bee. Does anyone have an explanation for it?
The second is the Red Bird of Paradise flower, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, (wrongly called the Mexican Bird of Paradise in these parts), whose flowers remain open throughout the morning but apparently stop attracting bees at around midday. The bees, though, exhibit a strange behaviour in relation to this plant that is the occasion of my question. Once they have stopped obtaining nectar from the flowers, they continue to visit the plant, ignore the flowers and run up and down the stems before flying off again. It is not uncommon to see half a dozen bees doing this on one plant at any given time. This behaviour seems to benefit neither the plant nor the bee. Does anyone have an explanation for it?
