Discovery Journal

Link: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230222-the-beautiful-flowers-that-bees-cant-use

This piece describes the benefits of using native plants and explains why the big showy flowers developed by the horticultural industry may be useless to bees and the ecosystem.

Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower) is not the only lobelia seeing pollinator action in the gardens right now. Lobelia syphilitica (Great Blue Lobelia, sometimes referred to as Blue Cardinal Flower), is a bee favorite.

At first glance, this pollinator may appear to be a bee or a small wasp working this yellow coneflower for nectar or pollen. It is actually a fly: the Transverse Flower Fly.

The Great Black Wasp has been visiting the gardens every day. Unfortunately, it has been less cooperative about landing and staying put, so I have failed to get a good picture for a positive ID until yesterday. In the late afternoon, I finally caught this very large, very black wasp pausing to pollinate the 'Ice Ballet' cultivar of Swamp Milkweed.

This week a grass-carrying wasp, likely Isodontia elegans, was identified in the backyard rain garden. The native wasp was found on a Little Joe Pye Weed cultivar.