Lantana, a vigorous flowering shrub known for its vibrant, clustered blooms, is a highly effective resource for various pollinators. This plant definitively attracts bees, making it a popular choice for gardeners aiming to support local insect populations. Its appeal relies on specific floral characteristics, a continuous blooming habit, and abundant nectar production. These mechanisms explain why Lantana is a dependable food source for bees and other beneficial insects.
The Floral Mechanics That Attract Bees
Lantana’s effectiveness as a bee magnet is rooted in its unique floral structure and signaling system. The plant produces dense, rounded flower clusters, or inflorescences, composed of many small, tubular florets. These individual blooms are perfectly shaped to allow easy access for a bee’s proboscis, the specialized mouthpart used for sipping nectar. This design ensures that the bees can efficiently gather the energy-rich sustenance they require.
The plant further optimizes bee foraging through an ingenious color-change mechanism that signals the availability of nectar. Newly opened flowers, which contain the freshest and most abundant nectar, typically display a bright yellow color. As the floret ages and is pollinated, its color changes, often transitioning to orange, pink, or red. Bees, which learn quickly to associate the brightest color, usually yellow, with a rich reward, focus their visits on the most productive blooms.
This color shift guides pollinators only to the unpollinated flowers, conserving the plant’s resources. The older, color-changed flowers remain on the plant, increasing the visual appeal of the cluster from a distance, but they are largely ignored by foraging bees. This mechanism minimizes the time bees spend on depleted blooms, maximizing foraging efficiency and pollination success.
How Color and Cultivar Affect Bee Visits
While the general structure of Lantana attracts bees, the color of a specific cultivar significantly influences visitation frequency. Bees possess excellent color vision and favor colors in the blue, purple, and yellow spectrum over pure red. For Lantana, the yellow phase is the most attractive because it directly correlates with the presence of fresh nectar.
Cultivars that exhibit a strong yellow or white component in their fresh blooms tend to be preferred by foraging bees. A variety that holds its bright yellow color longer before transitioning to orange or red provides a more consistent visual signal. Conversely, predominantly red or deep orange cultivars, while still providing some nectar, are often less favored by honeybees and native bees. These darker varieties may instead attract long-tongued pollinators like butterflies or hummingbirds, which are less sensitive to the color-change cue.
Lantana’s Role in a Diverse Pollinator Garden
Lantana serves as a reliable workhorse in any pollinator-friendly landscape due to its extended, nearly continuous bloom cycle. This long season of flowering ensures a steady supply of nectar and pollen, particularly during the hottest parts of the summer when many other garden plants have ceased blooming. This consistent availability of forage makes it a dependable food source throughout the growing season.
The plant’s value extends beyond honeybees, supporting a wide assemblage of native bee species, as well as butterflies and hummingbirds. Its tolerance for heat and drought means it thrives in conditions where other ornamental plants might struggle to produce flowers. By providing consistent, high-energy forage, Lantana helps bridge potential gaps in the food supply, contributing to the health and diversity of the local pollinator community. Incorporating Lantana alongside plants that bloom earlier and later helps establish a season-long buffet.
Maximizing Bee Visits When Planting Lantana
To maximize the benefits Lantana offers to bees, gardeners should focus on encouraging prolific and continuous flowering. The plant thrives in full sun, requiring at least six to eight hours of direct light daily, which promotes the highest density of blooms. Lantana is highly drought-tolerant once established, but consistent watering during prolonged dry spells prevents stress that can limit flower production.
Deadheading, the process of removing spent flowers, is an effective technique to increase bee visits. When a flower cluster fades, the plant diverts energy into forming seeds, halting new flower production. Removing these spent blooms tricks the plant into channeling its energy back into generating more flowers, ensuring a continuous nectar flow. Also, avoid the use of systemic or broad-spectrum insecticides, as these chemicals can be carried back to the hive in nectar and pollen, negating the plant’s benefit to the pollinator population.