Amino acids in nectar enhance butterfly fecundity: A long awaited link
The fascinating interactions between flowers and their pollinators have resulted in a spectacular diversity of plants. In order to entice pollinators such as bees, flies or butterflies to visit and successfully pollinate their flowers, plants have evolved intriguing mechanisms and attractants, of which nectar is best known. Thirty years ago, researchers discovered that nectars of flowers...Honeydew honeys are better antioxidants than nectar honeys
A study of 36 Spanish honeys from different floral origins revealed that honeys generated by bees feeding on honeydew have greater antioxidant properties than those produced by bees feeding on nectar. The study is published in this month’s edition of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Naturally occurring antioxidants are important ingredients of many foods, and keenly soug...Detecting poisons in nectar is an odour-ous task for honeybees
Though many spring flowers have bright advertisements offering sweet rewards to honeybees, some common flowers have not-so-sweet or even toxic nectars. Why plants would try to poison the honeybees they wish to attract is a scientific mystery. The honeybee, which accounts for the pollination of at least 1/3 of the world’s crop plants, may encounter such poisoned nectar in common crop and g...Columbine flowers develop long nectar spurs in response to pollinators
The researchers were Justen Whittall of the University of California at Davis and Scott Hodges of the University of California at Santa Barbara....Honeydew Honey Better Than Nectar Honey
A study on anti-oxidant properties of honeys from different floral origins finds that honeys produced by bees feeding on honeydew have greater antioxidant properties// than those produced by feeding on nectar. Naturally occurring antioxidants are important ingredients of many foods, and keenly sought in many ‘health foods’. They are believed to help protect people from diseases like c...