Living fossils, like Ginkos
And Equisetum/Horsetail/Schachtelhalm
Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
21–30 of 105 posts
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#22Magnolia make one of my favorite smells on earth. We have a huge one in front of a house we have moved away from and back to many times. The intoxicating smell when I mow the leaves and seeds beneath it is something I want to keep forever. I collected the red seeds and put them in a bottle with alcohol and I go back and smell it often to remember. The house flooded four days before closing on selling it, so we got more time with the house. We are wrapping that up and we will say goodbye to that old house, and it’s now quite huge magnolia in the front. I never knew the flowers were pollinated by beetles or why the scent smelled like that. I collected seeds last year and cold stratified a bunch all winter in our fridge. I planted them this spring and 7 survived the process and are now growing in red cups in my new house.
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, the whole point of bees as insect pollinators (reflecting that they are recent evolutionary line) is that they are by a healthy margin the most intelligent arthropod. They will inspect then successfully pollinate anything floral over a wide geographic range. Most insect pollinators are instinctually tied to certain species/families.
Jumping spiders are smarter
Are they? They are smarter than web-spinning spiders but I've never read anything suggesting they are smarter than bees.
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, the whole point of bees as insect pollinators (reflecting that they are recent evolutionary line) is that they are by a healthy margin the most intelligent arthropod. They will inspect then successfully pollinate anything floral over a wide geographic range. Most insect pollinators are instinctually tied to certain species/families.
Thanks, I never thought about bees like that. They certainly can use many types of flowers, as evidenced by various sorts of honey. Nitpick: some spiders are pretty darn intelligent and even seem to dream when they sleep, apparently.
[deleted]
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#25A lot of plants aren’t pollinated by bees. There’s pollinator wasps, flies, moths, butterflies… even birds and bats are pollinators
And olive trees have genders, with the male pollinating the surrounding females.
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#26A lot of plants aren’t pollinated by bees. There’s pollinator wasps, flies, moths, butterflies… even birds and bats are pollinators
One of those moths is this guy, who (in flight, not so much in still images) looks and sounds like a miniature hummingbird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird_hawk-moth
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#27Mountain mints are also pollinated by beetles—and a bazillion other critters. They are extraordinary pollinator magnets. Beetles, bees, flies, wasps, mosquitos (!), moths, butterflies, ... A recent study of just a few mountain mint species ( https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2024.2411072 ) found that they attracted a crazy variety of pollinators. Check the supplementary materials for the full list.
Mosquitoes (which are flies) don’t really deserve the exclamation mark, given that the males of all mosquito species live exclusively on nectar, with the females (of most but not all species) augmenting their diet with animal protein in order to produce eggs.
The long, thin proboscis originally evolved for nectar drinking like in many other insects (and some birds!); its use for sucking animal blood was a later adaptation.
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#28Mountain mints are also pollinated by beetles—and a bazillion other critters. They are extraordinary pollinator magnets. Beetles, bees, flies, wasps, mosquitos (!), moths, butterflies, ... A recent study of just a few mountain mint species ( https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2024.2411072 ) found that they attracted a crazy variety of pollinators. Check the supplementary materials for the full list.
I have mountain mint growing in my yard and every pollinator imaginable goes to that plant.
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#29A lot of plants aren’t pollinated by bees. There’s pollinator wasps, flies, moths, butterflies… even birds and bats are pollinators
One of those moths is this guy, who (in flight, not so much in still images) looks and sounds like a miniature hummingbird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird_hawk-moth
I noticed these for the first time earlier this summer. Incredible insects! They really do give a hummingbird impression.
Re: Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)
#30A lot of plants aren’t pollinated by bees. There’s pollinator wasps, flies, moths, butterflies… even birds and bats are pollinators