Grasses are supposed to be wind pollinated, so bees should ignore them, right. Actually, no. Our local honeybees have discovered that deer grass produces lots of usable pollen. They come in numbers to gather pollen, storing on their back legs as bright yellow balls.
Another funny thing is that deer grass is native, but honeybees are not. Yet, the bees exploit a food source that native bees do not. We’ll see if the grasses produce a bounty of seeds, and if our local birds come by for a feat – but that won’t happen for a while.
Since the bees are spreading pollen, does this mean that they might be pollinating the supposedly wind pollinated grasses?
On the other hand, do honeybees reduce wind pollination by removing pollen from the plants?
That’s the thing with ecology: everything is connected and it can take years to find answers. But first someone has to look for them, after noticing something and asking questions.