Hello;
The reason I brought up the topic of Siberian Iris pollinators was due to some recent reading about "pollination syndromes" and how it relates to speciation. Siberians are bee-oriented (landing platform with UV nectar guide). What I am really curious about is how our hybridizing efforts effect the types of visitors and the number of visits. The signal provides the UV guide, the fall the landing pad. Do certain hybrids provide better targets?
Unfortunately, I lack the time to experiment. But is at least interesting to know the pollinators.
People who love butterfly gardens may find it of value that Siberians attract Tiger Swallowtails etc.
Bill
Ken Walkup <krw25@cornell.edu> wrote:
>Bill & Dennis,
> I've "almost" caught the bees on camera several times in the last
>few days; the dang digital delay has defeated me every time. I also see
>some kind of fly working the blossoms ( hope it's not orthochaeta), and
>even a few ants on the shorter ones, but if you watch the bees at work it's
>easy to imagine how the mechanism works.
> ken
>At 08:57 PM 6/11/2007, you wrote:
>
>>Bill,
>>
>>There's a reason they're called "bee pods".
>>
>>I see lots of "visitors" in my iris gardens, but after having examined the
>>flowers carefully, I think the only visitors that I call pollinators are
>>the bees that wedge themselves under the style arm and pick up pollen from
>>the anthers. At the next stop, some of the pollen is scraped from their
>>backs by the stygmatic lip.
>>
>>I've attached a photo of a bee doing its thing on a Japanese iris.
>>
>>Dennis Hager
>>on Delmarva
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: <mailto:wmcdougherty@cs.com>wmcdougherty@cs.com
>>To: <mailto:sibrob@yahoogroups.com>sibrob@yahoogroups.com
>>Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 5:37 PM
>>Subject: [sibrob] Pollinators
>>
>>To everyone with open flowers;
>>
>>I spent a very small time looking into this topic the season but I have
>>often found it curious as to what pollinators visit Siberian Iris? More
>>eyes and people with more time could help with this topic?
>>I have seen Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies and Bumblebees.
>>
>>Bill
>>
>>
>
>
