First Bees

Which came first, the flowers or the bees? This year it was the flowers. But both have evolved, lock and key, together; the history of flowering plants is mirrored by the history of pollinators.

Lisa had the day off from teaching, so we were able to hike together today. Before we opened the car doors to get out, a Red Admiral graced the windshield and landed in the parking lot. This yearly migrant, surges north in the spring, arriving just in time to lay eggs on its host plant, Stinging Nettle. We’d chosen wisely in visiting the Cannon River Wilderness Area. As we walked down the stairs and entered the forested valley, a variety of spring ephemerals greeted us. First Bloodroot, its curled, knobby-fingered leaves beneath half-opened flowers giving it the look of a chalice raised by an Arthurian knight’s armored hand. Then Hepatica in numerous shades between white and violet, leafless, tall-stemmed flowers in tight groupings here and there across the forest floor. Lisa suggested they grew as living bouquets. More of a surrealist, the image that leapt to mind was of a group of Christmas carolers. Then Spring Beauty. Then False Rue Anemone and Dutchman’s Breeches, only beginning to bloom. Reaching the trail’s end at the oak savanna, Prairie Buttercup, small, egg-yolk-yellow flowers inches above the sand.

To the flowers go the bees. I had been concerned that the sustained cool weather was delaying the emergence of the early bees. For the last two weeks flowers had been open but there had been no bees to speak of. Today, however, my concerns fell away. The bees were back. A single, tiny Lasioglossum clung torpidly to the petal of a Hepatica flower. Colletes inaequalis visited willow catkins and dozens of vigilant males flew low to the ground at the aggregate nesting sites on the open sandstone slopes of the savanna bluffs. Several different species of Andrena gathered pollen from Bloodroot flowers. Yes indeed, the bees were back. I was happy, and doubly so, being able to take this hike and share these encounters with my companion of some many years, so many springs. Lisa and I were equal partners today like the bees and the flowers, or, the pleasing thought came to me, like the naturalists Edwin and Nellie Teale at Trail Wood.

Posted on April 15, 2017 02:10 AM by scottking