Are other springs in the Sonoran as populated with flying insects as this year's? I don't remember the bees being as numerous in years past, but I never hiked as much as this year, so it might be only my new perspective. Looking down from the hills, I see countless palo verdes, each one having spawned a galaxy of yellow flowers, each tree visited by dozens-if-not-hundreds of bees at any given time in the afternoon. I doubt I can convey to readers how loud and ubiquitous the buzzing is.
Today I noticed for the first time mesquite blooms, called catkins, but they may as well be called “pollen sticks” for their appearance. The mesquites growing in the washes seemed the only plant to attract more bees than the palo verdes.
Fun trivia: Mesquites are legumes—hence the bean pods they produce. As such, mesquites fix nitrogen into the soil. And the beans are edible.
2 comments:
I have just recently started to consume at minimum one spoon full of "local" honey (honey supposedly produced by bees within the local area near where I live) a day. I started this practice because I heard that doing so helps the body best deal with "local" pollen. I hope it works, but if not at least I get to eat a spoon full of honey every day without remorse! (Sometimes it is a big spoon too!)
Bobby et al.— Last year Laura did the same thing—i.e., eating a spoonful of honey every day. I'm skeptical of the allergy benefits, but, as you say, who cares!
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