<div dir="ltr">Received this beautiful photo yesterday and thought you might enjoy it. This comes from a garden in England where passion flower vines remain popular (read Tennyson's poem about Maude). These honeybees are unlikely to pollinate this flower if you compare the height of the bee to the heights of the stigma lobes and the anthers but I think our apiculturists will like it.<div><br></div><div>Peter<br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Irene Palmer</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:i.a.palmer@talk21.com">i.a.palmer@talk21.com</a>></span><br>Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 11:48 AM<br>Subject: Passion Flower and honey bees<br>To: Peter Bernhardt <<a href="mailto:bernhap2@slu.edu">bernhap2@slu.edu</a>>, Retha Meier <<a href="mailto:rmeier3@gmail.com">rmeier3@gmail.com</a>>, Grant Hazlehurst <<a href="mailto:granthazlehurst@msn.com">granthazlehurst@msn.com</a>><br><br><br>
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<p><font size="-1">Dear Peter and Retha,</font></p>
<p><font size="-1">I was admiring the flowers in a friend's garden
this morning. We were astonished to see a cluster of honey bees
completely encircling the central cup of a flower of Passiflora
coerulea. There were no bees on any of the other flowers. Any
bee that did approach a flower, left almost instantly and some
found their way to the popular flower, which they crowded around
as if it was a drinking fountain. BY the time Alison got her
camera a couple of bees had left.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1">Have cc'd this to Grant for fun.<br>
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<p><font size="-1">Best wishes,</font></p>
<p><font size="-1">Irene</font><br>
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