March 2025
In this blog series, we will highlight the vital connection between plants and pollinators, showcasing their essential role in maintaining biodiversity and supporting healthy ecosystems. Each month, we’ll explore specific plants and pollinators, delving into how they contribute to agriculture and natural habitats. This series offers an opportunity to deepen your understanding of these remarkable species and their essential roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems. By learning more about their unique interactions, you can better appreciate their importance and the ways we can promote environmental stewardship in our own communities.
Plant: Sand Blackberries (Rubus cuneifolius)
Sand blackberries typically bloom in February or March, and the picking season can range from April through June. The flowers are produced in late spring and early summer on short racemes on the tips of the flowering laterals. The white and pale pink blooms typically range from 15% to 25% in protein content, so it continues to aid the bees in their development of young bees within their brood. Their abundance supports not only pollinators but also provides berries as a vital food source for wildlife, enhancing biodiversity and the health of local ecosystems. A weed to some, a beautiful plant to me.
Pollinator: The Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens)
The Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) is the most often encountered bumblebee across much of eastern North America. Its range includes Ontario, Maine, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, south to Florida, west to Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Wyoming. Florida’s milder winter climate allows bumblebees to emerge earlier than in colder regions. The queen bees usually leave their hibernacula starting in mid-April and establish colonies in May, but last year (2023) they were observed in large numbers in February. In terms of colony sizes, a colony of B. impatiens consists of more than 450 individual bees, and most are worker bees.
Limitations of bumblebees leave them second place to honeybees on an economic importance, from population of field force (workers that are at the stage of pollinating), pollinating mechanism (buzz pollination), to not pollinating in rows like honeybees will, all of these play a role in their efficiency and commercial exploitation.
