An Observation Of Honeybees And Wingstem

Nothing in this world is insignificant. Throughout my life I’ve endeavored to learn how to live. I’m not talking about the pursuit of a paycheck or optimal health or any of the hardline assets that we collect. I desire the experience of something more than mere existence as a cog in the machine. I find it odd that we as a society are so focused on the “What’s In It For Me” factor to the point that if we don’t see instant gratification we think of something as worthless. Tonight’s feature image shows such a thing. Not so much the honeybee but the flowers they are so engaged with right now. It’s called Wingstem. It has no known medical value. It’s not collected as food and in spite of pleasing color it’s not a garden flower. In fact if I were to have pulled back from the plant and shot it at a wide angle you would see that it’s spindly and twisted. And yet at the very moment the shutter snapped it’s showing us it’s value as a food for the honeybee. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade you’ll know that the honeybee population is of great concern. Whole colonies are dying out and I’ve heard a few theories about what might be happening. Personally I think there’s multiple factors but one thing for sure is that bees have to eat. I noticed that even though there’s still a lot of pollen for them right now they don’t seem to be collecting it. They’re also ignoring the ironweed and Joe Pye weed that all the other pollenators are going nuts for right now. The only flower that this colony is focused on is the Wingstem. I’m not a bee expert so I’m not sure what it is about this particular wildflower that only the honeybees are interested in but my pattern recognition says that the nectar from Wingstem is very important to them right now. Wingstem is one of those plants that humans consider a weed because it’s of no direct use to us and most people cut it back when it turns up. But we definitely need the honeybees and they seem to it. Perhaps God made the Wingstem so unappealing to us because it’s for the bees to have all to themselves.

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