Ecology Research Project by MCDC

Research Of The Interaction Between Rhododendron and Bees By MCDC

<WENYI FU, CONNER K LAURSEN, DAYEON JUNG, MARIAM G ELIAS>

The Rhododendron is the national flower of Nepal. Rhododendron macrophyllum, which is a species of Rhododendron and is designated as the state flower in Washington officially in 1959. If we pay more attention to the flowers around us, we can see that Rhododendrons are everywhere in Washington. To know the interactions between flowers and insects, our group made many observations of Rhododendrons from beds, parks, and our backyards.

Figure 1: The Photo Of Rhododendron Taken On The Roadside

Figure 2: The Pictures Of Rhododendron Taken At The Front Yard

We all got some different results, but only one thing in common, which is bees are more willing to pollen on the Rhododendron with purple color than other colors, such as pink, red and white.  According to this observation, we design to do research to determine whether Rhododendrons with purple color are more attractive to bees. Does this situation occur accidentally or does it depend on other conditions, such as the weather, temperature or even the color of the Rhododendron? As a result, our group comes up with a hypothesis; Rhododendron with purple color is more attractive than other colors. During the experiment, our group will do some research on Rhododendron, to know whether the color influences its attractiveness to bees, and our primary focus will be the interaction between the Rhododendron with purple, red, pink color and the bees; the overall design of the experiment is to observe bees as they fly around pollinating on Rhododendron with purple, red and pink color and count how many times they pollinate each color. At first, doing some observations on Rhododendron to know more about Rhododendron. The locations around various neighborhoods have already been scouted and confirmed to have a diverse color pallet of Rhododendron flowers. We plan to do the observation outside a lovely lady’s house (address: 13407 47th Pl W, Mukilteo, WA 98275), which has three different colors of Rhododendron. Next, we will observe Rhododendrons with the same three colors in 2 other locations; on campus here at Edmonds Community College and 19019 20th Pl W, Lynnwood, WA 98036.  For each location, we will run two trials of observation; once in the morning, and once in the afternoon because of the differences of bee activeness during the day. There are four groupmates in our group in total, so we will have an observation time in the morning and the other one in the afternoon; four groups will be separated and do the observation in pairs, one observes, and the other one record the information that might affect the attractiveness to the bee, such as the weather and the temperature. When all the groupmates meet in a lab on Monday or Wednesday, we have to compare our results and answer various questions. After that, we will be able to conclude whether a purple Rhododendron is the most attractive to bees based on the number of times a bee pollinates it.

On May 9, our group started to discuss our observation schedule and places. We got the places for observation to Conner’s neighbor's house, his mom’s place and School’s garden which is in front of Brier building of EDCC. His neighbor’s house is located in Mukilteo, and his mom’s place is located in Lynnwood.  Also, we take two different times for observations which are morning, around 10 a.m. and afternoon which is around 6:30 p.m. The weather and degree of the day were different from each week. From the second week of observations, the flowers have been fading and falling. We have observed three different colors which are purple, red and pink.

Observation Schedule for 13407 47th Pl W, Mukilteo, WA 98275, Edmonds Community College and 19019 20th Pl W, Lynnwood, WA 98036
	Morning	Afternoon
May 13, 2016	Done	Done
May 20, 2016	Done	Done
May 27, 2016	TBD	TBD

On May 13, 2016. We did our first observation. The weather was little bit sunny and windy. The flowers were getting fade and dry. It was 56 degree celsius outside in the morning, but 70 degree celsius in the afternoon. The most noticeable change from last week is the flower’s fading. Conner and Mariam(two of our groupmates) made three identically sized shoelace rings for limiting an individual area for the inspection of the Rhododendron plants. This is because we plan only to count the number of the bees in these consistent, specific areas.

Figure 3: The Specific Area For the Observation of Red Rhododendron

Figure 4:  Photo of Pink Rhododendron That We Observed

Let us show you the results from our observation!

May 13, 2016  - 13407 47th Pl W, Mukilteo, WA 98275
The Color of Rhododendron	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 10:15 a.m.	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 6:30 p.m.
Purple	66	57
Red	51	36
Pink	38	33

May 13, 2016  - 19019 20th Pl W, Lynnwood, WA 98036
The Color of Rhododendron	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 10:00 a.m.	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 6:30 p.m.
Purple	30	32
Red	24	28
Pink	19	22

May 13, 2016 - 19019 20th Pl W, Lynnwood, WA 98036 (Edmonds Community College)
The Color of Rhododendron	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 10:00 a.m.	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 6:30 p.m.
Purple	56	49
Red	38	37
Pink	32	27

On May 20, 2016, at 10 am in the morning we also did some new observation. It was 57oC (Cloudy and rainy weather). As time passing and the raining whether, the Rhododendron from the three locations are all withering. They do not as many as last week. Nevertheless, we still got some nice results. All the observation shows that the Rhododendron with purple color had more bees to pollinate on them; it is a good results for our hypothesis.  

May 20, 2016  - 13407 47th Pl W, Mukilteo, WA 98275
The Color of Rhododendron	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 10:00 a.m.	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 6:30 p.m.
Purple	11	17
Red	5	12
Pink	4	11

May 20, 2016  - 19019 20th Pl W, Lynnwood, WA 98036
The Color of Rhododendron	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 10:00 a.m.	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 6:30 p.m.
Purple	20	40
Red	29	26
Pink	10	3

May 20, 2016 - 19019 20th Pl W, Lynnwood, WA 98036 (Edmonds Community College)
The Color of Rhododendron	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 10:00 a.m.	Amount of the Bee that pollinate flowers at 7:30 p.m.
Purple	10	24
Red	4	9
Pink	6	4

After three weeks of observation and data collection, we have some research questions that we are going to focus before starting the report.

1. Why Rhododendron in purple color is more attractive to bees?

• Bees find blue, purple and yellow flowers most appealing.

2. Whether the weather and temperature affect our hypothesis.

• When the weather is cloudy and raining, the number of bees get decreasing.

3. Whether the life cycle of Rhododendron affect this experiment.
4. Do bees seek the Rhododendron with different colors depending on the taste of nectar?

• The color and flavor of honeys differ depending on the nectar source (the blossoms) visited by the honey bees. In fact, there are more than 300 unique types of honey available in the United States, each originating from a different floral source. So, it can be said honey determines the honey’s quality and taste.

Figure 5: Life Cycle of Rhododendron

Reference

"Attracting Beneficial Bees: Gardener's Supply." Gardeners Supply. Web. 21 May 2016.

"Honey." National Board. Web. 21 May 2016.

"Reproduction." Of Rhododendron Ponticum. Web. 21 May 2016.