Look- a shooting star! No, not in the sky, but down near the
ground! Shooting stars (Dodecatheon
meadia) are some of the first flowers blooming in prairies right now, and
they can also be found in open woodlands. Since the pollen of these flowers is
in a narrow tube, bees have to work a bit harder to get at it. For flowers like
these, bees use buzz pollination, which means they hold on to the flower and
move their flight muscles rapidly to cause the flowers to vibrate. The
vibrations shake the pollen loose, and the bees can be on their merry way. If
you visit a prairie soon, hopefully you’ll see these shooting stars before the
taller plants shade them out.
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