Arnold Arboretum Pollinator Survey

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“Nature will bear the closest inspection; she invites us to lay our eye level to the smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. She has no interstices; every part is full of life.”  Henry David Thoreau in Excursions.

 

 

During the spring and summer of 2024, a team consisting of Prof. Colleen Hitchcock from Brandeis University, Matty Carrozza from Trinity University, Angela Noyes from Boston University Academy, Treespotter volunteers, and myself are surveying flower visitors to the range of plants growing at the Arnold Arboretum. 

Photo 1: Collen and volunteers survey flower visitors at a shrub of Kolkwitzia amabilis. 

 

Photo 2: Matty, Angela, and Richard survey a bottlebrush buckeye with numerous green sweat bees.

 

In the survey, we note whether visitors are collecting pollen or nectar.

Video 1: Here we see a carpenter bee probing into Buddleia flowers to collect nectar.

Video 2: This miner bee is scrabbling on Spiraea flowers to collect pollen; note the pollen on its legs.

 

Photo 3: We are also learning to recognize many new insects, such as this giant resin bee on a yellow rain tree.