Blueberry: Did you hear the latest gossips?
Bee: Yes, but It was me who pollinated your neighbor and now I’m pollinating you!
Blueberry: You dirty cross pollinator!
Okay, sorry about that opening line. But did you know that bees are the second most studied living being on the planet, just after humans? And yet we know so little about them.
We already know that flowers use bright colors, patterns and enticing scent to attract pollinators. What was learned back at 2013 in a communicating study that plants use electric fields to “communicate” with bees – on mid air and when landing on them! Through electric field the bees could even know had the flower been already visited by another bee.
What was recently discovered through a Israelian study that bees, other insects and plants can TALK! Flowers let ”ultra sounds” when they are stressed for instance! And certain flowers even increase their scents when they hear the buzzing sound of a pollinator to attract them even more – but that is old news. What is new is that plants and pollinators are talking about What YOU did last summer. Spooky stuff.
Flowers and bees have more than 200 million years of relationship behind – so it is certain that more and more of awesome discoveries will be found and we have just stratched the surface, or could we say “got a scent of it?”
Peace! Daddies out!
Link to the latest study: