The business of bees
There is no explanation for why this is occuring, although there are lots of theories. But Olivia Judson, the fascinating scientist who writes an op-ed column in the New York Times that attempts to explain the world to the rest of us, makes the case that bees don't have a corner on the pollination market.
Judson writes that flowering plants are the largest, most successful group of plants on the planet today -- more than a quarter million different species, nearly 10 times more than all the other types of plants added together. (In contrast, there are only 58,000 different species of living things.)
And they didn't get this successful by relying exclusively on bees. Other animals and the wind have done the job of pollinating, too.
She writes that plants seem to have a dual capacity to be pollinated by bees or by throwing their pollen into the wind, and perhaps they switch from one to the other to meet their needs, such as when the insect population isn't holding up its end.
"A bee, after all, can only carry so much pollen at once. The wind is not so limited." But, the wind can be a "fickle and inefficient messager."
The bottom line is that the disappearance of bees is a problem. Orchards and other farms are paying huge premiums to import a diminishing number of bees to get the job done in the spring.
But those clever flowering plants do not seem to have put all their pollinating eggs in one basket.
Comments
Nature is amazing — and we don't even know the half of it! One of the thrills of of being a gardener is knowing that we can help. Even if we only plant a small patch or keep a single hive of bees, each of us by caring for our small piece of the earth helps to keep it all working.
Posted by: Barbara | March 12, 2010 12:56 PM