Ecologist, Konstantinos Tsiolis, visited 3 of Urban Bees’ City roofs in June to survey bees and the plants they are foraging on, for research he is doing for Pollinating London Together, an initiative set up by the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers to improve habitat for pollinators in the area.
We were both excited to see what he would find, as his research – which began last year with a pilot study of 26 sites including churchyards and Inns of Court gardens – has focused up until now on ground level sites.
DAY 1: 8TH FLOOR, BREAD STREET – we started in the blistering heat where Red hot pokers (Knifophia) and Verbena bonariensis have run riot on a rooftop garden I maintain. Honeybees and buff-tailed bumblebees were in abundance, along with a few hoverflies, solitary wasps and a fly that looks like a bee. Our most exciting find was a tiny bee I spotted flying around the self-seeded Willowherb’s (Epilobium) tiny pink flowers. Konstantinos expertly caught it in his net and gently placed it in a glass tube so we could identify it. It’s metallic green thorax glistened in the sun revealing it to be a Green furrow bee (Lasioglossum morio).
st helen’s IOW
This excellent photo by Ian Tew of a male is the best I could find.
DAY 2: 12TH FLOOR, 1 BARTHOLOMEW – we only installed these planters in April so most of the plants have yet to establish. We only saw a few honeybees on the white lavender (Lavandula x intermedia ‘Edelweiss‘). No bees visiting the annual poppies which have popped up from the Seedball balls, nor the. cornflowers, nor the agastache. I spied a buff-tailed on the Lamb’s ear. Let’s see if it fares better next summer.
DAY 2: 8TH FLOOR, FETTER LANE – Weil’s established garden used for client entertaining proved to be a bee oasis, despite only a third of the plants actually flowering. More will be out in a couple of weeks. I can only claim partial credit for the planting, as I have advised the gardener, Matt Bell, on bee-friendly flowers to plant to bloom sequentially from early spring to late autumn. We have also installed bee hotels and a bee observation box which is completely full.
We spotted:
- Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) on thyme
- Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum) on St John’s wort (Hypericom)
- 2 x Yellow-face bees (Hylaeus) – probably a male and female Common yellow-face (Hylaeus communis) flying around the fennel
- 2 x Green furrow bee – probably male and female (Lasioglossum morio) on hebe
- Male leafcutter bee (Megachile – not sure which type of leafcutter) – you can tell it’s male by the white moustache. We found it on hebe.
- Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) on jasmin and fennel
- Honeybees on buddleia and jasmin and thyme
Konstantinos takes bees home if he’s not 100% sure of the species. He has 7 species here which need more accurate ID then the lens can provide.
By the end of August, he is hoping to have surveyed more than 60 sites across the City. His data will be published in a report that will aim to help improve future planting and habitat creation for bees in urban areas by showing landlords what can be achieved and how they can do it.
More information on Pollinating London Together is here.