A Guided Bee Walk by Lemise Guide, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha 

On Sunday, 18th May, Friends of the Botanic Gardens and other visitors to the gardens joined the Bee Walk with Lemise.   We saw Leaf Cutter bees, Hover flies, European honey bees, wasps and Australian Native stingless bees.  We stopped for a look at a native bee nest in a dead stump where the entrance hole is made to a specific size which is waxed and narrow to prevent predators entering and their nest is made in spirals as opposed to the European honey bee which use rows .

Native bees pollinate macadamias, blueberries and avocado among other plants.  They only fly about 500m and are not as fussy about pollen as are other bees eg the blue banded bees.

We found palm tree flowers on attracting a lot of bees including the leaf cutter bees. The Salvia section of the garden attracts a lot of bees as do the Aloes and the Bixa orellana (Lipstick tree) growing opposite the Aloes.

The Friends had a small stall selling Salvias.

Written by Patty FBBGSA