Colletes productus, f, face, Caroline Co., VA
Colletes productus - Lover of Lyonia. Lyonia = obscure shrub aka fetterbush/staggerbush/maleberry. There are a lot of obscure relationships out there. Here is a specialist bee dependent on an reasonably lovely ericaceous shrub. No Lyonia no C. productus and several other bees. Who speaks for Lyonia though? Can we plant our way back to native bee health. As an ancillary activity yes, as a complete solution no. We need all those pockets of natural areas and biodiversity where nature provides the complexity we can only create as a shadow of Nature's millions of years of labor. Collected by Ellison Orcutt from the Commonwealth of Virginia found on Forth A.P. Hill.
Beauty is nature's fact. - Emily Dickinson. Original public domain image from Flickr