Which foods are pollinated by bees?

Bees pollinate crops such as apples, cranberries, melons, almonds, and broccoli. Fruits like blueberries and cherries are 90% dependent on honey bee pollination, and during bloom time, almonds depend entirely on honey bees for pollination.

What crops do honey bees pollinate?

About one-third of the food eaten by Americans comes from crops pollinated by honey bees, including apples, melons, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, and almonds, to name just a few.

How many crops are pollinated by bees?

Bees pollinate 80% of the world’s plants including 90 different food crops. 1 out of every 3 or 4 bites of food you eat is thanks to bees. The honey bee is responsible for $15 billion in U.S. agricultural crops each year.

What crops are bees essential for?

Examples of bee pollinated crops include watermelons, cantaloupe, citrus, apples, cucumbers, squash, most berry crops, broccoli, nuts, asparagus, and more. Honeybees aren’t just important for commercial farmers.

What vegetables pollinate bees?

Vegetables that Need Bees for Pollination. Watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, pumpkins, eggplant, hot peppers and gourds all must have bees to pollinate them.

What kind of bees pollinate vegetables?

Much of the heavy work of pollinating vegetable crops is done by honey bees but there are also many other types of bees, wasps, beetles, and moths working our vegetable gardens. Carolina Farm Stewardship Association shares some useful info about native squash bees.

Is Brassica pollinated by bees?

Brassica napus is an insect-pollinated crop species and offers itself as the main nutrient source to many insects that consume floral nectar. This study was carried out to ascertain the pollen preferences of Apis mellifera among the available floral resources.

Which crop is least likely to be pollinated by bees?

Most staple food grains, like corn, wheat, rice, soybean and sorghum, need no insect help at all; they are wind or self-pollinated. Other staple food crops, like bananas and plantains, are propagated from cuttings, and produce fruit without pollination (parthenocarpy).

Do bees pollinate apple?

LOADED WITH POLLEN VISITING AN APPLE FLOWER. Globally, the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is considered to be the most important pollinator of apple, and is managed as a commercial pollinator in all apple-growing regions of the world (Brittain 1933; Free, 1993; Gupta et al., 1993).

What fruit and vegetables do bees pollinate?

Pollinators for our Food Crops — pumpkins, zucchini, avocados and cucumbers; — brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, cashews and almonds; — canola and sunflower; — coffee, coconut, mustard and cotton.

Do bees pollinate potatoes?

Pollen is plant sperm, and bees and plants have evolved a complex sexual surrogacy over their millions of years of evolution together. Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers; pumpkins, zucchinis, blueberries and cranberries: these food plants are examples of crops that require buzz pollination.

How are carrots pollinated?

In order to produce a seed the plant must be pollinated. The flowers of the carrot plant can be either self or cross pollinated. Pollen is produced by the male portion of the plant. The pollen, which contains the sperm, is transferred to the stigma of the plant by vectors such as honeybees or flies.

What foods do bees pollinate?

From farms pollinated by honey bees we get apples, pears, plums, almonds, watermelons, pumpkins, cucumbers, blueberries, and many other foods. Honey bees also pollinate the alfalfa and clover fields to produce forage for beef and dairy cattle.

Why are bees good pollinators?

Bees make excellent pollinators because most of their life is spent collecting pollen, a source of protein that they feed to their developing offspring. When a bee lands on a flower, the hairs all over the bees’ body attract pollen grains through electrostatic forces.

How do bees pollinate crops and why is this important?

The most important thing that bees do is pollinate. Pollination is needed for plants to reproduce , and so many plants depend on bees or other insects as pollinators. When a bee collects nectar and pollen from the flower of a plant, some pollen from the stamens-the male reproductive organ of the flower-sticks to the hairs of her body.

What foods depend on bees?

Numerous other crops are 90 percent dependent on honey bee pollination. Some of those crops include apples, avocados, blueberries, cherries, cranberries and sunflowers. Other crops such as cucumbers, kiwi fruit, melons and vegetables are also pollinated by honey bees.