A honey bee on alfalfa. USGS.
Land managers want better pollinator habitat on private and public lands of the Prairie Pothole Region. Knowing which flowers bees prefer makes conservation seed mixes more cost-effective. This USGS fact sheet, prepared with the USDA Farm Service Agency, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Honey Bee Health Coalition, helps planners and producers choose them.
The study (2015–19)
- Where: 244 grassland sites in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota — conservation plantings, natural areas and roadsides.
- How: scientists at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center counted flowers and bee visits along 20- by 2-meter transects over 5 years.
- Scale: 1.25 million flowering plants of more than 280 species. Honey bees visited 70 species (6,317 visits); wild bees visited 83 (1,887 visits).
- "Preferred" means a plant got more visits than its abundance would predict — so a common plant like alfalfa, visited often only because there is so much of it, isn't on the list.
Preferred flowers
P = perennial, A = annual, A–B = annual to biennial. Most preferred first.
Honey bees
| Plant | Scientific name | Status | Life cycle | Blooms | Growing conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Showy milkweed | Asclepias speciosa | native | P | June–August | well-drained soil, full or nearly full sun |
| Common milkweed | Asclepias syriaca | native | P | June–August | sandy, clayey or rocky calcareous soil |
| Lacy phacelia | Phacelia tanacetifolia | introduced | A | June–September | well-drained sandy and gravelly soils |
| Blue giant hyssop | Agastache foeniculum | native | P | June–September | mesic to dry soil, full or partial sun |
| Charlock mustard | Sinapis arvensis | introduced | A | June–September | mesic soil, full sun; disturbed areas |
| Sainfoin | Onobrychis viciifolia | introduced | P | June–September | well-drained soils; a legume forage |
| Purple prairie clover | Dalea purpurea | native | P | June–September | well-drained or dry soils |
| Alsike clover | Trifolium hybridum | introduced | A, P | June–September | tolerates wetter or acidic soils |
| Stiff goldenrod | Oligoneuron rigidum | native | P | July–September | mesic to slightly dry soils, full sun |
| Sweetclover | Melilotus officinalis | introduced | A–B | June–September | all soil types |
| Wild bergamot | Monarda fistulosa | native | P | July–September | well-drained soil, sun |
Wild bees
| Plant | Scientific name | Status | Life cycle | Blooms | Growing conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lacy phacelia | Phacelia tanacetifolia | introduced | A | June–September | well-drained sandy and gravelly soils |
| Stiff goldenrod | Oligoneuron rigidum | native | P | July–September | mesic to slightly dry soils, full sun |
| Eastern purple coneflower | Echinacea purpurea | native | P | July–September | moist to mesic soil, full sun |
| Maximilian sunflower | Helianthus maximiliani | native | P | June–September | many soil types, full sun |
| Pinnate prairie coneflower | Ratibida pinnata | native | P | June–September | well-drained soils, full sun |
| Blanketflower | Gaillardia aristata | native | P | June–September | variety of soils, full sun |
| Blue giant hyssop | Agastache foeniculum | native | P | June–September | mesic to dry soil, full or partial sun |
| Wild bergamot | Monarda fistulosa | native | P | July–September | well-drained soil, sun |
| Purple prairie clover | Dalea purpurea | native | P | June–September | well-drained or dry soils |
| Smooth oxeye | Heliopsis helianthoides | native | P | June–September | dry to semimoist soil, full sun |
- Left out: bull thistle, Canada thistle and field sowthistle were preferred too, but are State-listed noxious weeds.
- Check locally: some listed species may be considered weedy. Weigh the list with soils, regional growing conditions, seed availability and landowner goals.
- Bloom periods are the first and last flowering seen in the survey, which ran June–September each year.
A small carpenter bee on smooth oxeye. USGS.
Flowers in a pollinator seed-mix planting. USGS.
Sources
Based on Flowering Plants Preferred by Bees of the Prairie Pothole Region, by Stacy Simanonok and Clint Otto, USGS Fact Sheet 2020–3038, U.S. Geological Survey (DOI); data: Otto and others (2020), USGS data release; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The table and photographs come from the fact sheet's PDF, which spells wild bergamot "bergamont."
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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