- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Just drop by the Davis Public Library next Thursday night.
Pollination ecologist Neal Williams, assistant professor of entomology at UC Davis, will present a public lecture on “Promoting Native Bees for Gardens, Farms, and Native Plants” at the Davis Botanical Society meeting on Thursday night, May 10 in the Davis Public Library, 315 E. 14th St.
Williams, to speak from 7 to 8 p.m., will discuss native bee biology and diversity in the Capay Valley, how bees interact with plants, and the challenges facing native bees as they respond to landscape change in Yolo County. Drawing from his studies on the impact of native plant selections in the re-diversification of agricultural landscapes, Williams also will tell his audience how habitats can be enhanced using native plants.
“Our beautiful state has diverse and unique plants and animals, with many found nowhere else in the world,” said Botanical Society spokesperson Ellen Dean, curator of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity. “This is true of our native bee species, some of which have never been named by science. If you have wanted to find out more about the relationship between native bees and California plants, you are invited to come to a free public lecture.”
Williams, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2009, was a featured speaker at the International Symposium on Pollinator Conservation, held last January in Fukuoka, Japan. He explored agricultural landscape change and the role of bee life history in predicting and understanding responses of bee communities.
A native of Madison, Wisc., Williams studied botany, history and philosophy of science in 1990-91 at Edinburgh University, Scotland, before receiving his bachelor of science degrees in botany and zoology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1992. He received his doctorate in ecology and evolution in 1999 from the State University of New York, Stony Brook (SUNY-Stony Brook).
And, if you're interested in joining the Davis Botanical Society, the group has scheduled its annual meeting and election of officers at 6:45 p.m., just prior to Williams’ talk.
Parking in the library parking lot is free. Further information on the Davis Botanical Society is available from Ellen Dean or Jean Shepard at the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity at (530) 752-1091. 
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey bees aren't that much into roses. Wild roses, yes. Cultivated roses, not so much. Given a choice, they'll take the lavenders, mints and salvia (sage) over the roses any time.
Occasionally, however, we see honey bees foraging on roses in the UC Davis Arboretum's Storer Garden on Garrod Drive, or in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road.
Ah, roses! One of life's simple pleasures. And what would Mother's Day be without them?
Speaking of roses, this weekend on the UC Davis campus is all about roses. The California Center for Urban Horticulture (CCUH) and Foundation Plant Services are teaming to present their fifth annual Rose Day on Saturday, May 5 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Melissa "Missy" Gable, program manager of CCHU, says the May 5th event, themed "Your Sustainable Backyard: Roses," will include talks and demonstrations; a tour of the Storer Garden on Garrod Drive; a tour of the Foundation Plant Services' eight-acre rose field on Hopkins Road; and a tour of the All-American Rose Selection test garden on Hopkins Road. And it's all for $45. (See registration or contact Missy (Borel) Gable at mjborel@ucdavis.edu for more information.)
Workshop participants--as well as the general public--can not only smell the roses but buy them from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, May 5 at the Foundation Plant Services site at 454 Hopkins Road. Rose plants are $25 each, five or more for $22, and 10 or more for $18--cash and checks only.
Then on Sunday, May 6, the public rose sales will continue from noon to 5 p.m. at the Foundation Plant Services site. Think hybrid teas, grandifloras, climbers and landscape roses. "Four-inch Cinco de Mayo rose plants will be given out while supplies last," Gable said.
Sale proceeds will benefit horticulture education at UC Davis--a good cause.
And maybe, just maybe, you might see a few bees on the roses. You won't be charged extra!
(Directions: The Foundation Plant Services, 455 Hopkins Road, is located on the corner of Hopkins and Straloch, about a mile west of the UC Davis central campus. Take Hutchinson west of 113, turn right toward the new West Village apartments at the first traffic circle, then west again onto Hutchinson at the second traffic circle. Take a left on Hopkins at the second line of olive trees. Note: While you're in the area, you might want to stop by and see the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a bee friendly demonstration garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, off Hopkins Road. It's open from dawn to dusk every day; admission is free.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
However, in wild populations, monarchs are commonly infected "with a specialist protozoan Ophryocystis elektroscirrha; this parasite can be transmitted both vertically and horizontally and causes debilitating infections."
Altizer, an associate professor in the Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, will discuss "Migratory Immunity: Parasite Infection, Host Defense and Fitness Costs in Monarch Butterflies" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, May 9 in 122 Briggs Hall.
It promises to be well-attended, given the avid interest in monarchs and Altizer's expertise.
What's so special about monarchs?
"Monarch butterflies are known for the incredible mass migration that brings millions of them to California and Mexico each winter," according to an article in National Geographic. "North American monarchs are the only butterflies that make such a massive journey—up to 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers). The insects must begin this journey each fall ahead of cold weather, which will kill them if they tarry too long."
The National Geographic article points out that "Only monarchs born in late summer or early fall make the migration, and they make only one round trip. By the time next year's winter migration begins, several summer generations will have lived and died and it will be last year's migrators' great grandchildren that make the trip. Yet somehow these new generations know the way, and follow the same routes their ancestors took—sometimes even returning to the same tree."
Altizer's research focuses on the interplay between animal behavior and the spread and evolution of infectious diseases. For the past 15 years, she has studied monarch butterfly migration, ecology, and interactions with a protozoan parasite, asking how seasonal migration of these butterflies affects parasite transmission.
She also researches a number of other projects, including mammalian infectious diseases and songbird-pathogen dynamics, including studies of house finch conjunctivitis, West Nile virus, and salmonellosis.
But we butterfly enthusiasts are happy she's studying the monarchs!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
it's a traffic stopper.
The plant, reminiscent of a Christmas tree, attracts not only vehicular and foot traffic, but honey bees, bumble bees and hummingbirds. It's basically a tower of bees when it blooms.
The one in our yard is about eight feet tall. Honey bees, eager for the nectar and pollen, keep creating traffic jams. If you sit and watch them, you'll see them constantly bumping into one another as they forage for food.
No wonder it's a favorite of beekeepers.
The species, a biennial, is native to the Canary Islands. It's endemic to the island of Tenerife.
Last year several towers of jewels bloomed near Storer Hall on the University of California, Davis campus, and a couple of others graced the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road, about a mile west of the central campus.
The UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery sells these at their plant sales, but they go fast, says Ellen Zagory, the arboretum's director of horticulture. "We don't have any left," she said.
No wonder.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sometimes it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
The common blue damselfly or Northern Bluet (Enallagma cyathigerum) is long and slender like a needle, but a jeweled blue needle.
We spotted this one last weekend at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis.
Damselflies are difficult to photograph. You have to sneak up on them. If you move too fast toward them, they're gone.
Damselflies and dragonflies share the same order, Odonata. However, damselflies are in the suborder Zygoptera.
Naturalist John Acorn of the University of Alberta, calls the blue damselflies "flying neon toothpicks." In fact, his book, Damselflies of Alberta is subtitled Flying Neon Toothpicks in the Grass.
Whether you call them needles or toothpicks, damselflies are stunning.
