Photo by Kat Pearson.
BY KAT PEARSON, GIRL IN THE GREEN
I’m sure everyone knows the European honeybee – the ones that sting you (and then die!) and are responsible for the jars of honey in the pantry. Honeybees were introduced to Australia in the early 1820s by European settlers who imported many a plant and animal to make Oz feel like home. But Australia has around 2000 species of native bees all of our own!
During summer, I wake up to the sound of our native blue-banded bees, Amegilla cingulate, buzzing in my blue ginger flowers Dichorisandra thyrsiflora (not actually a ginger at all, but well worth growing). I’ve noticed these bees around my garden in other flowers, but the blue ginger is a magnet for them, and the tubular shape of the flowers amplifies the buzz sound, so I know when they’re about.
If you haven’t seen a blue-banded bee, they are a bit chunkier than a honeybee, have a tan, hairy body and iridescent blue stripes on their bottoms. If you get up close, you can also see their really long tongues, which help them get nectar and pollen from deep in the flower.
Like many of our native bees, these guys are specialists in ‘buzz pollination’. Basically, they get into a flower and shake their booty (technically, they vibrate their flight muscles, which are in their thorax or the middle bit, but that sounds less cute). Buzz pollination is really helpful to some plants that have their pollen tucked away in anthers with tiny openings too small for insects to get in. One well known plant that likes buzz pollination is the tomato. The wind is often enough to shake some of the pollen free, but buzz pollination is the next level.
Blue-banded bees are solitary bees and don’t live in hives, although they often live near each other, like a little village. Females nest in clay soil or soft sandstone and the guys hang out overnight on plant stems, clamping on with their jaws. These bees are only active in the warmer months and die as the weather cools, but overwintered eggs hatch when it warms up and the cycle starts again!
ABOUT KAT
I love gardening, growing my own food and plants in general. I’ve been working on our current garden in subtropical Brisbane for the last six-plus years, but have been gardening for much, much longer in all sorts of places. I’m an ex-engineer, recently turned horticulturist (life’s too short not to work in something you love!). I grow edibles and ornamentals in an often wild, rambling jungle, filled with birds and bugs, including a handful of pet chooks and a brand new puppy (who likes to chase said chickens, and is not averse to helping me dig a hole!).
