Mexican hyssop

A new plant (to me) appeared this summer in local plant sales: Mexican hyssop.

Agastache mexicana belongs to a large, widespread genus, with species native to a variety of habitats, predominately in dry hilly areas of the Southwestern U.S., Mexico, Japan, and China.

There are already lots of selections, but I'm quite keen on the one that I obtained from a vendor at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville and the similar one that we had at our Garden plant sale this fall.

I thought I had a image of it sprawling out of the oak-half barrel, but apparently only kept this one, of a overnighting carpenter bee on a flower.

Bees and hummingbirds favor its large, nectar-rich flowers -- and, it has a long flowering time, so there's not much NOT to like about that.

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A late summer afternoon

It's still hot in the afternoons, but the mornings are cooling off. It's starting to feel like a hint of fall is on the way.

In late summer, carpenter bees and a variety of bumble bees are active visiting flowers.

Carpenter bees enjoy late flowering Rudbeckia fulgida and passionvine, Passiflora incarnata.

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Flower visitors

I enjoy watching flower visitors. Are they collecting nectar or pollen (or both)? How are they visiting the flowers? Many are effective pollinators, transferring pollen between flowers, but not all are.

This bumblebee was sonicating ('buzzing') horsenettle flowers (Solanum carolinensis) to discharge pollen. Then, they take the pollen back to provision underground brood cells. About 8% of the world's plant species require 'buzz pollination' to effectively transfer pollen to stigmas.

Some large bees (such as this carpenter bee) 'rob' the nectar of available flowers, such as this Salvia, poking a hole in the base of the flower (corolla) tube.

Butterflies rely on nectar for a source of energy as adults, some getting energy from rotting fruits. Some will collect salts and minerals from shallow puddles, dung, or salty spots. Here's a silver-spotted skipper visiting a bee balm flower for nectar, getting an energy-rich boost.








Photo note:
My gardening companion took the horsenettle and bee photo, and a fellow educator just sent me the photo of the skipper visiting bee balm.

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Passionflowers and carpenter bees

At mid-day in the meadow, the passionflowers open up. Our native passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is a lovely sprawling vine (sometimes a bit too sprawling, but it's easily pulled up when it gets out of hand). Each flower only lasts for a day, fading quickly. They're pollinated by carpenter bees, who drink the nectar pooled at the base of the flowers. I noticed this bee busily working one of the flowers about noon. Check out the pollen on its back! It's such a great example of how flower shape is adapted to promote cross-pollination. As the carpenter bee takes up nectar, pollen is continuously brushed on its back, to be transferred to the next flower visited.

This bee had so much pollen on its back that it was getting down around its mouthparts. Apparently, the pollen doesn't taste good, so she/he busily cleaned up, taking a break from nectar drinking.

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Summer bees and flowers

There are so many kinds of native bees, in addition to the introduced honeybee. They've been fun to learn about and observe in different flowers.



The big carpenter bees with their smooth black abdomens are the biggest, except for the occasional queen bumblebee. They visit a variety of different flowers, and are strong flyers. They're not above 'robbing' nectar from Salvias, either, poking holes at the base of the flowers, thereby circumventing entering the flower 'correctly'.

All of the smaller bees are fun to watch gathering pollen. These were visiting native Helianthus hirsutus and Rudbeckia fulgida flowers in the meadow.





There's a specialist bee that collects pollen from these portulaca flowers in one of my containers, but I wasn't able to catch it in a photo.

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