Imagine yourself on a sunny day in a meadow, surrounded by sunflowers, wildflowers, and dandelions.
The air is fragrant with the smell of ripe blossoms and noisy with the buzzing of bees. Thousands of them are hard at work. They’re gathering nectar and pollen for the hive and spreading some of the pollen from plant to plant.
The color and scent of flowers attract bees and other insects. Pollen, the powdery yellowish substance inside flower blossoms, contains male reproductive cells. When a bee lands on a flower, pollen sticks to the hairs on its body. When it flies to the next flower, the pollen sticks to that flower’s female cells. This joining of male and female cells is called fertilization. Without fertilization, new plants or flowers could not grow.
Meanwhile, the nectar that a bee sucks up with its tongue is brought back to the hive to be used for honey making. After delivering the nectar to the hive, a bee sets out again immediately. Honeybees visit between 60,000 and 90,000 flowers to collect enough nectar to make just a thimbleful of honey. There’s a reason for the expression “busy as a bee”!
