Galanthus in February 2014

[Alan_b]

I wonder how far bees fly when foraging in February?  My local churchyard is about half a mile away as the crow flies (I don't know if bees fly in straight lines).  Some snowdrops have started turning up there that I can imagine bear the influence of snowdrops growing in my garden.  For example, there is a really weird one that looks like plicatus x gracilis with twisted but clearly plicate leaves.  But the only local source of gracilis pollen I know of is in my garden.

[Tim Ingram]

I just think of 'Trym' as a snowdrop trying to become a snowflake! Its no different really from the way in other plants the different whorls of the floral parts can become like the others - in this case the outer tepals becoming like the inner ones (poculiform is just the opposite).

[emma T]

I think a bee carrying trym pollen when I found this is very unlikely , they only person I can think about in this area at that time allowing for how many I found would be at Snape cottage and that's an hour away by car ! And that wouldn't account for all the plicatus crosses and seed swarm either , it had been there for a while .

[Tim Ingram]

It sounds as though it is simply another mutation in another place, resulting in plant very like 'Trym'. This becomes like a detective story - I shall classify my plant along with 'Emma's Ex' and 'Trym' and perhaps try and get away from all the Trymlets and Trymposters that are around. Trouble is 'Trym' is so valuable. Pity a few radio listeners don't discover the SRGC Forum (and I suppose I should use a smiley face here).

[Irm]

One of various seedlings from 'Trym' that have occurred in the garden, now opening its flowers in the sun. This seems to have produced a whole new race of snowdrops which are very appealing.

wow ! I'm afraid I had to wait some years for such a sight   

[Irm]

G.trympostor came from Avon and is damaged from shipping a little, but I love it 

[Irm]

.. and Diggory

[Tim Ingram]

'Diggory' really does stand out doesn't it and has a poignant story very like that on Radio 4 Midweek.

[Matt T]

I wonder how far bees fly when foraging in February?

You'd be surprised how far! The bees out now will be queen bumblebees waking up from their hibernation. Initially they will be looking for nectar (fuel for their little bodies) but later will start collecting more pollen, which is fed to the brood. Many foraging flights will be made within a 2 or 3km of the nest, but routinely foraging flights up to 8km would not be unusual. Forays even as far as 11km might not be impossible.

I was interested to see Anne Wright's demonstration of snowdrop pollination at Dunblane at the weekend and how the flowers need a sharp tapping to shed their pollen. This suggests to me that snowdrops might require 'buzz pollination' i.e. the bee holds on to the flower and vibrates it's wings to release the pollen - something many species of bumblebee practice, but never honeybees. This would fit with the early flowering for snowdrops timed with the first emergence of queen bumblebees, at a time of year when it is still too cool for the honeybees to be actively flying.

If anyone is interested in the fascinating lives of bumblebees I can recommend the book 'A Sting in the Tail' by Dave Goulson. It's an engagingly written account telling you everything you need to know about bumblebees.

[David King]

A single flower of Galanthus Pricilla Bacon.  We have a nice clump now in the garden and were pleased at the weekend when two of her children came to look at it.

[Alan_b]

That's very interesting, Matt.

Emma, I've found enough different inverse poc. type nivalis myself (in an isolated wood full of nivalis) to know that not all inverse pocs derive from Trym.  But once you have Trym in your garden it seems very likely you will start getting similar seedlings.  A pity that there is no cheap means of genetic fingerprinting plants.  I'm sure that would clarify a lot of conjecture about interrelationships.     

[mark smyth]

I love this time of year. Not just for snowdrops but the fact that for the last few weeks the sun, when its out, now shines in the green house for the last hour of day light. This morning for a brief moment it was shining in the back yard - happy days

I'm also so happy with the way the new raised in the back garden looks with the snowdrops, Crocus and Iris reticulata

[Alan_b]

'Diggory' really does stand out doesn't it and has a poignant story very like that on Radio 4 Midweek.

Do tell, Tim.

[Maggi Young]

The long and the short of it :

little : 7.5cm  scape,  just under 10cm to top of pedicel
large : 23.5cm  scape, 28.5cm to top of pedicel

[Alan_b]

'Green Light', my claim-to-fame in the snowdrop world.