When bumble bees realize that they are short of pollen, they make the tomato plants flower earlier (sometimes as much as a month) than they would normally do, by biting off the leaves of the said plant. When the researchers attempted to do the same, however, they failed to replicate the results, which suggests that “there is a distinct characteristic to the bees’ biting that stimulates flowers”.
While the bees managed to make the plants flower 30 days earlier, scientists only managed to make them flower five days earlier than they would otherwise.
“We really tried to replicate with the best of our ability,” Prof Consuelo De Moraes, from ETH Zurich, the public research university in Switzerland which conducted the research, told the BBC.
“It's possible that the bees also have some cue that they are providing to the plants that is specific to the bee. And that could be secretions that we don't know about but it's something that we plan to investigate.”
I guess this just goes to show how important bees are on our planet.
More details about this study over at Independent.
(Image Credit: Pixabay)