Thousands of gardeners and bumblebee enthusiasts across the United Kingdom are helping researchers at the University of Aberdeen find the best pollinating plants to put in gardens.
Researchers are using BeeWatch — a platform dedicated to reporting bumblebee sightings and “pollinator-friendly” plants and flowers — to gather data in hopes of making urban environments more suitable for bees.
“We all know that pollinators like bumblebees are in trouble and need our help,” researcher Dr. Helen Anderson said. “It is a global problem.”
Since it began, BeeWatch has collected more than 6,000 submissions, which the research team used to determine which plants are most suitable for the country’s bumblebees. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, noted that traditional “pollinator-friendly” lists fail to differentiate between different bee species and pollinator groups.
“Using citizen science data can be one of the best ways to help bumblebees if it uses up-to-date observations on plant use from data collected by members of the public,” Anderson said. “The data they provide can be much more specific about the plants used by individual bumblebee species, rather than relying on ‘pollinator-friendly’ labelling, which gives generic planting recommendations.”
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) will use the new information to update its list of bumblebee-friendly plant recommendations.
“This paper demonstrates that compilers of these lists need to stay abreast of new data as this is made available,” said RHS Principal Entomologist Dr. Andrew Salisbury. “We see the RHS Plants for Pollinator list as a living resource — one which we are always seeking to improve and it is clear that gardeners’ observations are helping to improve its value.”
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Every one who have a garden should plant at least a few beautiful flower trees. That way we will be able to keep our vanishing BEE population.
We need our bees 🐝🐝.
I would love to plant anything that will promote bee’s coming to my yard. I live in the burn scar from CA wildfires and need to re-plant things.. please advise what is best for the bee’s
Bees are so important.
Bees are so important.
Yes, but this is ONLY the one side of the Bees legacy. Scientifically proven & done the research and proven that, a SINGLE BEE HAS TO VISIT 5 (FIVE ) MILLION FLOWERS TO MAKE 1 (ONE) KILOGRAM OF HONEY. So once when the farmers collect their hard earned honey, these poor Bees has to over work and get exhausted and at the end they die.
THAT IS WHY MANY PEOPLE DO NOT CONSUME THE BEES HONEY. Also many people are not aware of this FACTS.
there are many other varieties of Honey available than the Bees honey. Agave syrup, Coconut sugar syrup, Palm flower syrup, and many more.
Stop the consumption of Bee honey. Let the Bees pollinate and make the world be a beautiful place. Rather snatching their hard earned Bees to be consumed by the humans. I always plant beautiful flowers in my yard and I always get dozens and dozens of Bees coming to pollinate the flowers. That is PRICELESS..
Great interesting article. I always love to hear of the importance of bees pollinator. Thank you for helping them thrive and survive.