Pollinators at Work

Honeybee on an early bloomer in the Rose Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Mother's Day '14.

Carpenter bee on Camassia Quamash, Heather Garden, Fort Tryon Park.

Honeybee working a  heath blossom in the Heather Garden.

Honeybees collect pollen, which they take back to the hive to feed their young and themselves. With the long winter and late spring we've had, my guess is that the bees in these photos are collecting pollen, but it's impossible for me to tell.  Bees collect nectar to make honey, usually when the weather is consistently warmer.   Bees make beeswax and propolis too.  

Carpenter bees are pollinate also.  Due to the strength of their thoracic muscles they can actually loosen pollen from flowers that other pollinators can get at.  This ability is referred to as "buzz" pollination or "sonification."  

Fitbit One Takes a Licking and Keeps On . . . Blooming

Six weeks ago my husband lost his Fitbit One.  He replaced it with another. This past weekend he found his original One near the wood pile in Vermont.  When he lost it, in March,  there was still lots of snow on the ground. Then the Fitbit endured Vermont's mud season, a time of alternating thawing and puddling and re-icing and re-thawing. Snow, sleet, rain,  and even a bit of sunshine.  And guess what? He brought it inside and before thirty minutes had passed, the flower started to bloom.

Of course, to make the flower bloom like the one pictured above, he had to walk. A lot.  Which we did. We hiked six miles roundtrip to Hamilton Falls in Jamaica State Park on Sunday.  The first two miles are on the 19th-century West River Railroad trail, with a gentle uphill grade.  Then there's a moderate,  consistent climb up to the Falls,  the tallest falls in Vermont, for a total of 55 Fitbit floors. 

Here's a clip of the action on Hamilton Falls:

The Fitbit flower is the product of a fairly new field of study called captology--computers as persuasive technologies.  Get it?  The Fitbit flower entices us to move, to change our habits.  One of the most successful applications for captology gets us off our computers, off our couches, and into the world. The Fitbit blooms and so do we.  Captology can be studied at Stanford University.  Here's a link to their program http://captology.stan ford.edu/ , where  psychology meets digital technology.  Move over, Don Draper, there are new kids in town. . . 

Apres le Deluge, the Blooms

Over 5 inches of rain fell in Central Park two days ago.  Yesterday by noon by the sun was shining and streams were receding, though puddles remained as the temperature climbed to 70 degrees.  Is there anything more diverse than the weather?  Perhaps the plant world. . .

Late-blooming heath heats up the Heather Garden

Once again Fort Tryon Park called out, in part because I wanted to be on higher ground (That means I needed to climb  steps to meet my Fitbit goal of 40 flights per day.) and in part because it was May Day!  All of the flora pictured here is in the Heather Garden.  

A bumble bee "working" the heath.

Species tulips like these caused a financial crisis in 1637.

Will these azaleas be in bloom by the weekend?  It sure looks that way.  Bring on the reds!

Azalea form the backbone of the long perennial border in the Heather Garden.