BLOSSOMS & BEES: A LOVE STORY

Blossoms and bees need each other. The same is true of farmers and bees. About 70% of the top 100 human food crops, which supply about 90 percent of the world's nutrition, are pollinated by bees. But bee populations have been dramatically declining. And farmers are largely to blame. Redemption, however, is on the horizon.

Ironically, modern, intensive farming, along with pesticide use, have been largely responsible for the decimation of bees. In a beautiful reversal, farmers are now finding that when they plant flowers next to their food crops, they will attract more bees, and that, in turn benefits their harvest.

Global bee populations have been dramatically declining over the past 60 years, with some species nearing extinction. There were about 6 million colonies in the US back in 1947. Today, there are only 2.5 million.

New studies, conducted by researchers at the University of Sussex, have found that the reintroduction of flowers to farmland is also is boosting bee populations.

The farm flowers attract foraging bees and encourage nesting,  according to the researchers. Their study was published in Molecular Ecology.

When scientists analyzed bumblebee populations on HLS farms in West Sussex and Hampshire, over the course of two years following the flower planting, they found greater numbers of common bumblebee species and evidence of more nests than farms who did not plant flowers.

The flower planting strategy only works for bees who are able to fly over longer distances, so many rare types of bees aren’t able to be helped by the farm flowers. They will need more and more targeted flower planting.

Agri-environment schemes are now funded as part of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) farms in the UK especially benefitted from planting strips of bee-friendly plants such as red clover, bird's-foot-trefoil and common knapweed.

We just planted a whole lot of flowers at BN HQ gardens. We’re hoping for some buzzy visitors too now.

Read more about New Blossoms all this week on BeautifulNow. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by faungg's photos. Wildflowers, Texas.
2. Image: by Forest Wander. Scenic Country Farm.
3. Image: by Tom Graham. Bees & Lavender.
4. Image: by Phil Roeder. Farm Crawl. A Bunch of Marigolds at Crooked Gap Farm.
5. Image: by Carol Von Canon. Evening Primroses By The Road.
6. Image: by Deb Nystrom. Lavender, Bees, Barn, Silo Lavender Hill Farm.
7. Image: by Morgan. Red Clover.
8. Image: by F Delventhal. Bees Own the Cosmos.
9. Image: by Rachel Kramer. Barn.Bradford Farm.
10. Image: by Brian McGuirk. Prairie Plant with a Crazy Bumblebee.
11. Image: by Cindy. Bashful and a Bee.