The beauty of honeysuckle

It’s the time of year when wild honeysuckle is in bloom and walks along country lanes in the UK, especially if taken in the evening, are accompanied by the sweet perfume released by the flowers. I’m not a believer in aromatherapy, but that scent always makes me feel good and the abundant flowers (see below) are also so attractive to the eye. 

If I was a creationist, I would think honeysuckle was designed by God for my enjoyment, but that wonderful scent is to attract pollinating insects – perhaps why it is stronger in the evening, when more pollinators are on the wing. The production of attractants by plants has evolved on many occasions and it is not just the volatile chemicals that we can also smell, flowers often contain markings that guide the pollinating insects, with their UV-sensitive eyesight, to the nectaries where they can feed on sugary secretions. These are another adaptation of the plant to ensure fertilisation, since the insects pick up pollen when feeding and this is transmitted to other flowers. 

The scent of honeysuckle has associations in folklore and there is a tradition that growing the plant around a porch prevents evil spirits from entering a house or cottage. Another old belief is that it is unlucky to bring honeysuckle indoors as the scent of flowers results in erotic dreams, something not favoured by the parents of girls [1]. This association of honeysuckle and love has been celebrated in paintings, whether in the delicate approaches shown by Devis (below, top) and Bristow (below, second) the overt intent shown by Rubens (below, third), or in the wistful sense of longing portrayed by Chowne (below, bottom). It is a sad irony that Chowne died from wounds during the First World War, having joined The Artists’ Rifles. 

Our love of wild honeysuckle has resulted in the cultivation of many different species, the commonest being three varieties of wild woodbine (Lonicera periclymenum), named “Belgica”, “Serotina” and “Graham Thomas”. It is not known whether the honeysuckle shown in the flower paintings of the Dutch Golden Age was wild or cultivated, but it is given status alongside prized garden plants, including some very valuable tulips. Examples of flower paintings by Ruysch (below, upper) and de Heem (below, lower) show honeysuckle sharing a vase with several other flowers, including the very expensive tulips that resulted in Tulipomania [2]. 

In addition to the power of honeysuckle in giving pleasure and in folklore, the plant is used by humans and other animals. Infusions can be made from honeysuckle flowers and the berries contain chemicals that reduce inflammation after topical application [3], providing an explanation for their use in folk remedies. In addition to these anthropocentric uses, the nectar provides a source of energy for many insects, as described above, and the leaves are the sole diet of the white admiral butterfly [4] that can be seen occasionally in woodland clearings where honeysuckle abounds. 

Such lovely plants – such a beautiful scent! 

 

[1] Steve Roud (2006) The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. London, Penguin Books. 

[2] https://rwotton.blogspot.com/2020/05/monkeys-and-tulipomania.html  

[3] Marco Rafael, Lillian Barros, Ana Maria Carvalho, Isabel C. F. R. Ferreira (2011) Topical anti-inflammatory plant species: Bioactivity of Bryonia dioica, Tamus communis and Lonicera periclymenum fruits. Industrial Crops and Products 34: 1447-1454. 

[4] https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/white-admiral

  

 

Sources of the illustrations of paintings (in the order shown): 

Devis - http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/207802 

Bristowe - https://wikioo.org/paintings.php?refarticle=AQUHJS&titlepainting=Lady%20with%20Honeysuckle&artistname=Ethel%20Susan%20Graham%20Bristowe  

Rubens - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Rubens_en_Isabella_Brant_in_de_Kamperfoelie_Bower.jpg  

Chowne - https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/honeysuckle-46448  

Ruysch - https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rachel-ruysch-flowers-in-a-glass-vase-with-a-tulip  

De Heem -  https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-davidsz-de-heem-flowers-in-a-glass-bottle-on-a-marble-plinth

 

 

 

 

Visits from a leaf cutter

Our friends Fiona and Conor gave us a potted houseleek plant (Sempervivum sp.) and it has grown so well that it has now been divided. Four of the rosettes were re-planted into the attractive ceramic pot that was part of the original gift and this forms the central decoration on the large table in one of the seating areas in our garden.

Yesterday, while enjoying a cup of coffee in the warm sunshine, I noticed that the pot was being visited by a leafcutter bee (Megachile sp.). It flew around the pot, landed on the soil at the margin, and then disappeared under the lip. Although my photographic skills are less well developed than my patience, I was able to get an image of the bee in flight just before it landed (see above). In addition to making frequent foraging flights for pollen and nectar, it also brought in sections of leaf on three successive occasions and the bee then looked just like the one in this wonderful image taken by HymenOphrys  and published on the urbanbees website [1]:

To find out more about the bee’s behaviour, I looked up Shuckard's British Bees [2]. The prose of Nineteenth Century Natural Historians is often appealing, as they had few other methods of describing their observations, only being let down by excesses of anthropomorphism. Shuckard was no exception, and he conveys his passion for the study of insects, something which overtook his ability to manage his finances [3]. These are his descriptions of the behaviour of this solitary bee [2]:

The proceedings of these bees are very curious. Although the tubes they usually form are long, they are so constructed as not to branch far away from the exterior of the material into which they bore.. ..Both the sides of the tube, and the cells they form within them, will necessarily vary in diameter and length with the size of the species, but in the larger species they are about an inch and a quarter long and half an inch in diameter..

..The cylindrical tube [is] prepared.. ..by the gradual removal of the particles of the wood, or sand, or earth of which it consists, the insect's instinct [then] prompts it to fly forth to obtain the requisite lining, that the lateral earth may not fall in, or the wood taint the store to be accumulated for the young.. .. Having fixed upon the preferred plant .. ..it alights upon the leaf, and fixing itself upon the edge, it holds it with three legs on each side, then using its mandibles as the cutter of silhouettes would his scissors, and, just as rapidly as he cuts out a profile, does this ingenious little creature ply the tools it is furnished with by nature. The oval or semicircular cutting being thus speedily dispatched, with the legs still clinging to the surfaces, the insect biting its way backwards, the piece cut off necessarily remains within the clutch of the legs, and, when about falling, the rejoicing labourer expands her wings and flies off.. ..[to arrive] at the mouth of the aperture within which she has to convey it..

Shuckhard then describes how other pieces of leaf are brought in to complete the lining and it was this that I was watching. The bee then collects pollen and nectar (flights that I also saw), and deposits these in the leaf-lined tube. An egg is laid on to the mass and the cell completed by another leaf fragment of circular form.

Shuckard  continues:

The whole process is again renewed in the same manner as at first, the bottom edge of the cutting of the external leaf is again curved to form a concave bottom to the next cell, and the sides are similarly formed, and each cell fits the preceding like the top of one thimble placed in the mouth of another.

The analogy to thimbles is rather dated, but we can now picture more clearly the biology of the bee. In time, larvae hatch from the eggs, consume the food store provided for them, and grow through stages to then produce a silk cocoon in which they pupate. Emergence of the adults from pupae completes the cycle, with mating occurring and the next generation of female bees starting to build tubes and cut leaves.

It is intriguing to ask oneself how the habits of the bee evolved: its burrowing behaviour; the use of leaves to provide a lining of the tubes it makes; the manner in which leaf segments are brought together; the collection of pollen and nectar; the evolution of life stages of such markedly different form; and the ability to fly and to navigate. All this was going through my mind when watching "my" bee and I'm so pleased that she chose our pot of Sempervivum as the home for the next generation. They will not be disturbed.

[1] http://www.urbanbees.eu/

[2] W. E. Shuckard (1866) British Bees: An introduction to the study of the natural history and economy of the bees indigenous to the British Isles. London, Lovell, Reeve & Co.

[3] Yolanda Foote (2004-2016) Shuckard, William Edward (1802/3-1868), entomologist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, Oxford University Press.