I have noticed that here in Dorset, (southern England) gorse goes out 

of flower (except the dwarf variety) at about the same time that the 

heather, which occupies the same heathland terrain, comes into flower.  

Could they have evolved this pattern to avoid pollinator competition 

and maximise their own reproductive efficiency?



Naturally, there are not too many large hollow trees or other suitable 

nest sites on heathland and so bees have to fly a long way to work 

these plants.  When Prof Francis Ratnieks was at Sheffield University 

(he's now at Sussex Uni) he had his students marking and tracking bees 

and found that they went (if my memory serves) up to 14km ( almost 9 

miles) to get the the heather.



Chris



  
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