Bumble bees

Bumblebees

Several news stories provided New Zealanders with some interesting information on Bumblebees in January 2010.

The lead story of the return of a species of bumblebee to England. Those collected from the Mackenzie Country are direct descendents of bumblebees brought to NZ over 100 years ago to pollinate red clover in the pastures of Canterbury and Otago. There were several attempts to bring live bees to NZ with early attempts being unsuccessful. It was not until 1885 that 48 bees finally arrived alive although the rest of the 282 sent with this batch died on the way. They were released at Lyttelton by the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society.

Interestingly this particular species which came from England is now extinct there.

Did you know there are over 250 species of bumblebee in the world mainly occurring in the Northern Hemisphere. Many have the well known black and yellow body hair which is characteristically soft in nature, called pile, that covers their entire body, making them appear and feel fuzzy.

Bumble bees in general are perfect for pollinating many fruit and vegetable plants grown in NZ and England. They should be care for and of course their off spring should be repatriated home. Further there are no bumblebees in Australia even though there were some early attempts to introduce them to Tasmania. Border control in Australia is on the lookout to make sure they do not establish there either.

Bumblebees live in colonies which are usually much less extensive than those of honey bees. This is due to a number of factors including: the small physical size of the nest cavity, a single female is responsible for the initial construction and reproduction that happens within the nest, and the restriction of the colony to a single season. Often, mature bumblebee nests will hold between 50 and 450 individuals. Bumblebee nests may be found within tunnels in the ground made by other animals, or in tall grasslands. Bumblebees sometimes construct a wax canopy over the top of their nest for protection and insulation. Bumblebees do not often preserve their nests through the winter, though some tropical species live in their nests for several years. In temperate species, the last generation of summer includes a number of queens which overwinter separately in protected spots.

In spring the queen emerges and finds a suitable place for a nest and sets about gathering pollen and nectar, preparing wax pots to store food in and wax cells into which eggs are laid. Larvae are fed on both pollen and nectar through various stages until the bees appear after about 5 weeks.

Bumblebees continue to visit flowers throughout the summer and growing their nest while at the same time performing the valuable function of pollinating a wide range of flowers. Late in autumn they repeat the cycle of creating a number of queen bees to start all over again.

While not native to New Zealand the bumblebee performs a valuable function in agriculture and horticulture.  Returning these bees to England will enable the British countryside to again produce a wide range of wildflowers.

For further information go to the following websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee

http://www.organicpathways.co.nz/business/story/129.html

http://www.bumblebee.org/

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/wasps-and-bees/5/3

http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/Bumblebees_to_New_Zealand.pdf

Cyclamen hederifolium

Mid February is near the end of our official summer of December, January and February. The weather is really supposed to be hot but this year is a very cool summer for us. Usually our best months are Late January to mid March. 

The photos show the gradual emergence of the cyclamen flowers from one very large cyclamen corm and  a photo of my single white flower currently out.

Cyclamen hederifolium

This is one of the easiest species of hardy cyclamen to grow outside in your home garden. Once established and it flowers well it will set seed and more plants may grow nearby. It makes a great ground cover and produces many flowers often at a time when other flowers have finished.

This hardy species of Cyclamen has a wide distribution stretching from southeastern France, through Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, (including Crete and many of the Aegean Islands) and western Turkey. It inhabits woodland, scrub, and rocky hillsides from sea level to 1300m.

C. hederifolium has pink flowers with a purple-magenta V-shaped blotch at the base of each petal, which appear between January and May in New Zealand. There is also a white flowered form which is now common in cultivation, but scarce in the wild. The many flowers appear either before, or with, the young leaves which are often ivy-like as suggested by the specific epithet. However, the plant is very variable and the leaves can be every shape from almost orbicular to lanceolate. Leaves vary from dull or bright plain green to plain silver with various forms of pattern in between, with the pattern in silver, gray, cream or merely a different colour green. The tuber roots from its top surface and sides.

The plant was for many years known in horticulture as Cyclamen neapolitanum Ten. (1813), and this name erroneously persists today in some nurseries and writings although the name Cyclamen hederifolium Aiton was proposed in1789. Today its correct name is Cyclamen hederifolium.

In 1997, Grey-Wilson revised the classification of the species, identifying two varieties. This recognised that populations in the southern parts of its range, particularly Sicily, Crete and the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese differ from other forms.

C.hederifolium var. hederifolium. Which has two forms  C. hederifolium var. hederifolium forma hederifolium which has  prominent patterns on the leaves and deep pink to reddish purple flowers and C. hederifolium var. hederifolium forma albiflorum with pure white or pale pink flowers

C.hederifolium var. confusum. Which has leaves bright green with a poorly defined leaf patterns, leaves thicker and fleshier, shiny, particularly beneath.

C.hederifolium is the most reliable and hardy Cyclamen species, flowering well in the garden and seeding around. It grows well both in full sun and partial shade or beneath deciduous trees. It particularly enjoys growing in soil which contains a good proportion of leaf mould (leaf litter). It easily survives low temperatures, and grows quite happily in  in New Zealand. It naturalises in a variety of areas making a fine show.

The fleshy tubers can survive for up to 50 years in the ground and can grow up to the size of a saucer.

Some cultivars have also been named C.hederifolium.'Album', C.hederifolium 'Pink Pearl' and 'White Pearl'

For more information on the 20 species of Cyclamen visit http://www.cyclamen.org. This is the website for the Cyclamen Society.