ON MY MORNING WALKS in August, I usually pass by a massive trumpet vine shrub (Campsis radicans) that has taken over a driveway fence on one of my village’s alleys.
It is a tenacious plant that produces a mass of orange flowers. It is loaded with compound leaves supported on woody structural stems. It is a big bush, twelve feet high, and a sight to behold. The trumpet-shaped flowers are scattered throughout its canopy. I have observed hummingbirds over the years work the flowers collecting nectar. It is enticing to watch them in progress.
Mrs. Couch, my eleventh-grade biology teacher, would be proud of my continued interest in “critters” and their relationship to plants. She got me on a very good track by supervising my bug collection endeavors. She was like a field commander sporting binoculars and demanding my full attention. She had my number and I obeyed her unquestionably.
I located a very busy bumblebee amongst the trumpet creeper. I watched the bee work the hundreds of flowers. A close examination of the above photo reveals the bee flying around the cluster of flowers at about 4 O’clock. An earlier photo had the bee deep in the throat of the flower; it appeared to be a black spot in the center of the flower. I thought how fun it was for both of us to be visiting the insides of flowers.
The bumblebee is there to collect nectar. Bees feed on and require both nectar and pollen located prominently in the flower structures. Nectar is for energy and pollen provides protein and other nutrients. Bees use most pollen as larvae food for their hives, but bees also transfer it from plant to plant, providing the fertilization services needed to keep the cycle of life going. This essay is not meant to be a thesis, so I hope this is enough of a summary to describe the remarkable scene I came upon on my morning walk.
The wonderment of it all makes me smile.
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