Our pring is a few weeks late, but it is here now and the bees are busy gathering ollen and nectar from willow (Salix), blackthorn (prunus), gorse (Ulex) and ust today I saw my first dandelions of the year, a real stimulus for the spring uild-up. Here in the deep south (Dorset) willow and blackthorn are about 6 weeks late but the dandelions are just about on time. Is this because the leafless trees wait for temperatures (air or ground?) to rise before risking flowering, whereas things like dandelion with a permanent rosette of leaves will be stimulated by solar radiation rather then temperature? A while ago, on the Irish list there was discussion about which comes into leaf first: oak or ash, which seems to be determined by rainfall the previous season. Chris *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L