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- Jan 5, 2017
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- Atlantic Beach, Fl
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I've got a stand of Buckwheat growing now, because it's suppose to be a very good summer cover crop, but also it's suppose to be very attractive to bees, which I don't really care about, since I have tons of plants for all the pollinators; however, I still like to see which plants attract which pollinators.
I have yet to see one pollinator on the buckwheat. The buckwheat is surrounded by "weeds" that I've never bought, rather just allowed to grow in my yard, these are just two species of weed of many that I have growing in my yard. One is Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) and the other is Blanketflower (Gaillardia pulchella). Both the native bees and invasive honeybees love these weeds as well as many other species of weeds I have, but they constantly bypass the Buckwheat, even flying thru the stand of Buckwheat to get from one of the weeds to the other.
I'm not saying the bees hate Buckwheat, but it does remind me of a research project by Annie White, which seemed to indicate that pollinators prefer wild natives as opposed to cultivated species (in some cases). You'd think that at least the invasive honeybees would be attracted to the Buckwheat, but they prefer the Spiderwort and skip the Buckwheat (but they also skip the Blanketflower); however, the native bees love both the Spiderwort and Blanketflower.
BTW, the Buckwheat I planted is Common Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) from seed company Botanical Interests.
Annie White's research
I have yet to see one pollinator on the buckwheat. The buckwheat is surrounded by "weeds" that I've never bought, rather just allowed to grow in my yard, these are just two species of weed of many that I have growing in my yard. One is Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) and the other is Blanketflower (Gaillardia pulchella). Both the native bees and invasive honeybees love these weeds as well as many other species of weeds I have, but they constantly bypass the Buckwheat, even flying thru the stand of Buckwheat to get from one of the weeds to the other.
I'm not saying the bees hate Buckwheat, but it does remind me of a research project by Annie White, which seemed to indicate that pollinators prefer wild natives as opposed to cultivated species (in some cases). You'd think that at least the invasive honeybees would be attracted to the Buckwheat, but they prefer the Spiderwort and skip the Buckwheat (but they also skip the Blanketflower); however, the native bees love both the Spiderwort and Blanketflower.
BTW, the Buckwheat I planted is Common Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) from seed company Botanical Interests.
Annie White's research