Paper found at https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/nph.16230 Thanks Peter B!
Sigh. The authors did not put the common names of the plants in with the scientific names. Stinkers.
Lupinus mutabilis - in the Lupine family, native to the Andes, looks like Texas bluebonnet, which is also in the Lupine family.. I've seen honey bees collecting the rusty-colored pollen of Texas bluebonnet. I don't have colonies in Texas, just an Aunt I was visiting, so I don't know if there is a reduced number of brood surviving during the time of bloom of Texas bluebonnets. I think that would have been noticed, no?
Echium family - Pride of Madiera is an example, native to N Africa, mainland Europe to central Asia.
Ranunculus - Buttercup family. Bees do not visit buttercup!!! in Ohio. Horses don't like it either. Something does, because it comes up regularly. I wondered why... perhaps there is a taste that warns of toxicity? Perhaps the sugar concentration of nectar is too low relative to what blooms in spring. Still...makes me wonder!
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The authors point out that specialist bees may be able to visit toxic blooms, due to an adaptation that generalists lack. Honey bees are generalists, as we have all seen when they go after bird seed dust... that's pretty general.
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Toxicoscordion - camas family, or death camas, or star lily. Native to the midwest.
Aconitum (/ˌækəˈnaɪtəm/), also in the Ranunculus family. AKA aconite, monkshood, wolf's-bane, leopard's bane, mousebane, women's bane, devil's helmet, queen of poisons, or blue rocket, native to mountainous areas of N hemisphere.
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Certain toxic pollens may be useful as medicine! For bees. In a related vein, the toxic compounds (or bio-active compounds, or toxic-in-high-concentration compounds) may be advantageous for the pollen as an antimicrobial compound.
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Asteraceae pollen also reduced bumblebee infection by the pathogen Crithidia bombi and honeybee infection by Nosema ceranae in a controlled experiment (Giacomini et al., 2018)
Another possible variable in compromised bee health in certain locales? Or during certain years? Or a secret ingredient helping some areas have better winter survival (Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona - I'm lookin' at you! See https://bip2.beeinformed.org/survey/ to compare beekeepers' survival by state, or mite treatment, or whatever).
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