What's so special about bumblebees? (if you read my email you can skip this section)
For starters, they are cute and fluffy.
Seriously though, they are very important to our ecosystems and that is why they earned their place in my Desolation series.
When planning this piece, I thought about my grandparent's yard covered in clovers and bumblebees. I was always looking down so I didn't step on a bee with no shoes on. Which did happen when I was five or six. My grandfather fixed me right up. He chewed some tobacco and covered the bee sting in it. I am not sure if this old southern remedy actually worked but I was up and running again in minutes.
Back to the drawing! To stay on theme for this piece, I made my little clover patch in dried out pasture with a broken fence.
The charcoal background representing the wilting trees and grass and the ink representing the manmade dilapidated fence are perfect landing place for the vibrant colored pencil clover and bumblebees.
The collaged layers add to the depth of life with and without pollinators.
Bumblebees are friends.
Friends to our ecosystem. While bumblebees are very cute and peaceful to watch, you should still give them enough space to do what they need to do. They do have stingers and will sting you if they feel threatened.
Male bumblebees do not have stingers and occasionally take naps in flowers. Wouldn't that be cool to walk through your garden and see a fuzzy little bee booty sticking out of your daffodil.
Bumblebees are inquisitive, so if one flies in your face, he is just checking you out. I have several in my yard that greet me every time I walk outside.
Bumblebees unlike honeybees have the ability to keep themselves warm so they can survive cooler temperatures.
Bumblebees have the ability to vibrate pollen out of the toughest places in certain plants. It's called sonication or buzz pollination. They grab the plant and use their flight muscles to create a powerful vibration that shakes the pollen loose.
The importance of prairie clover
Prairie clover is a native plant to North America and is very important for soil and ecosystem health.
These beautiful plants hold atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and covert it to plant soluble nutrients.
The color and shape of these flowers attack a large variety of bees, butterflies, moths, and beetles.
Native clover is very important in erosion prevention. The roots of these plants can grow up to six feet down. This depth not only helps hold the soil in place, it also helps hold in moisture. The root depth can pull from deeper areas of stored water.
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