The bees are buzzing in our nature park. Native bees have adapted and evolved to harvest the nectar and pollen of the native trees and plant flowers, which can be small and sometimes difficult to enter.
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Other larger native bees have developed a vibration to shake the pollen off the plants they target so bonus nectar is collected. Some, including the native stingless bees, are tiny so they can maneouvre into blooms to reach their target.
As well as feeding bees, native flowers feed the nectar feeding birds, ring-tailed possums, bats, and some other small mammals.
Some of the flowers out at the moment are seen in the photograph above. From top left, black wattles, blue flax lily, blueberry ash, malaleuca biconvexa; bottom left, dusky coral pea, native cordyline, tallowwood, kangaroo apple.
These are beautiful with colour, structure and attracting mechanisms for insects which provide something for us to examine. Bring a magnifying glass, or digital camera in close-up mode to explore this natural beauty.
We need these flowers to provide food, diversity of pollination, and seeds, to strengthen the genetics and survival of rainforest and bush areas wherever they are.
If you, would like to join the Friends of Kooloonbung volunteers who help maintain the park, contact Rex on 0429 680 131. We would love to see you on Mondays, when we do the majority of our work.
