Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a number of common eastern bumble bees (Bombus impatiens) resting on the sedum flowers along my front walkway when I first walk outside in the early morning. As the season turns and the evenings get cooler, bumble bees start to slow down. Bees require a temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit or higher to fly easily without using up all of their nectar stores; even overnight temperatures in the 50s or low 60s will…
Saturday afternoon I came across a patch of flowering bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) in a sandy clearing that was absolutely abuzz with bumblebees. Its short, sprawling growth form seems vine-like, but bearberries are actually low growing, evergreen shrubs. The waxy leaves are 1/2 to 1 inch long and taper at the base. Bearberries are a member of the blueberry family (Ericaceae), and like blueberries have small, hanging bell-shaped flowers. The white flowers, which are often tipped with pink, are pollinated by bees…
Wild indigo (Baptisia tinctoria) is a low shrub-like herbaceous perennial, which grows 2 to 3 feet high and has small (approximately a half inch long) yellow pea-like flowers. The gray-green leaves are somewhat clover-like and trifoliate (divided into three leaflets). Perhaps the most widespread Baptisia species in the eastern United States, it occurs in sandy dry areas, open woods and fields from New England to Florida and west to Minnesota. The flowers bloom July through September and are just now…