- A honey bee foraging for nectar on the seven son’s flowers.
- A honey bee working on the flowers with a solitary bee, perhaps a halictid.
- This photo shows clearly what the wiki page says about this plant. The “hepta” (seven) is perhaps a mis-count, because normally it has 6 flowers per cluster as shown here. Perhaps the original Chinese name misled to the Latin name of this plant?
Please complete a brief survey at the end of this page. This should only take about 2 minutes. Post blog survey.
| Family | Caprifoliaceae |
| Genus | Heptacodium |
| Species | miconioides |
| Common names | Seven son’s tree, 七子花 |
| ZBAS | 9 |
This plant is a small tree or tall shrub, endemic to China but first introduced to the Arnold Arboretum (of Harvard University). What is special about this plant is its blooming time, August or September in Michigan. This is a time where not too many flowers bloom (a “dearth period” for honey bees) and honey bees tend to be sensitive to anything sweet. Tiny amount of honey on a truck, or even one frame of honey, will attract 10 thousand of bees in 10 min — thus called “robbing behavior”.
Those photos are taken August 30th, from the Beal Botanic Gardens at MSU. Honey bees, bumble bees and other solitary bees are seen on the very pretty white flowers.
- A honey bee foraging for nectar on the seven son’s flowers.
- A honey bee working on the flowers with a solitary bee, perhaps a halictid.
- This photo shows clearly what the wiki page says about this plant. The “hepta” (seven) is perhaps a mis-count, because normally it has 6 flowers per cluster as shown here. Perhaps the original Chinese name misled to the Latin name of this plant?
Please complete a brief survey at the end of this page. This should only take about 2 minutes. Post blog survey.
