Focus on beelines for flowers

Snapdragons. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Kiwi scientists have been involved in ground-breaking research into what flowers attract bees.

The research was a joint effort by scientists Dr Kathy Schwamm and Kevin Davies, and PhD students from the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, and scientists from the United Kingdom. They observed bumblebees pollinating snapdragon flowers.

Davies found the bees preferred stripey or red flowers over white or ivory-coloured ones. The research could be useful to gardeners wanting to attract more bees for pollination, he said.

The John Innes Centre in England, a world leader in plant and microbial sciences, has found stripes on flowers act as "landing lights" to guide bees to nectar or pollen.