So, what’s your favourite honey: clover, heather, manuka? I doubt anyone would opt for ragwort honey but wild bees are eagerly nectaring on its flowers. Don’t they know it’s toxic?
Red-tailed bumblebees are nectaring on ragwort. Wild bumblebees, their furry bodies dusted with pollen as they forage, deep in flowers. There’s an intimate relationship between bees and flowers. Ragwort flowers attract several species of bee which fly from flower to flower in a spurt of buzzing, a vibration that loosens nectar in flowers eager for pollination. The bees delve deep, down out of sight amongst petals, between flowers. Caterpillars of cinnabar moths munch the ragwort and shrug up stems for fresh leaves in a spurt of elastic wriggling. Don’t they know ragwort is poisonous?