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Old April 20, 2012   #13
Fusion_power
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Alabama
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So I'm a beekeeper. Since most of the common bee attracting flowers have been mentioned above, I'll answer the question about flower colors. Honey bees see 4 colors. Red appears black to them so eliminate red. They see higher into the spectrum than we do so one of their colors is in the low end of ultraviolet which we can't see. That leaves them seeing a spectrum that starts at yellow and goes to UV. Now lets talk about flowers for a bit. Have you noticed that many flowers have an umbel which may be yellow or white and inside near the bottom of the flower is a purple splotch? Rose of Sharon (mallow family) is an ideal example of this color pattern. The splotch is a nectar mark and bees learn to go immediately to this area of the flower.

If you watch bees for a while, you will see them foraging on white flowers (clover), yellow flowers (squash), blue flowers (vitex), and purple flowers (vetch). They don't discriminate based on color. What they are looking for is nectar and pollen. They will visit any color flower so long as it is producing one or the other or both.

DarJones
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