Rant: Everyone says native plants are always better for pollinators, but I found out honeybees actually prefer some non-natives

I was reading through some field notes from a study out of the University of Minnesota Arboretum last night. They tracked bee visits across 20 different plant species over two summers. Turns out honeybees visited lavender and catmint way more than any native goldenrod or aster in their test plots. I know native plants support specialist bees better overall, but people act like planting anything non-native is a death sentence for bees. Has anyone else seen data that contradicts the common gardening advice?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wesley12d ago

Yeah I used to think the same way but that study actually shifted my view.

rodriguez.mia11d ago

Oh, I hear you. It drives me crazy when people take one little study and act like it settles everything. @the_wesley, I get why that study felt convincing, but when you step back, you see this same pattern everywhere. Like how folks will read one article about eggs being bad for cholesterol and swear off omelets for life, then six months later another study says eggs are fine. We grab onto whatever single piece of information fits what we already want to believe, and we call it proof. It happens with health news, with politics, with anything really. That's why I try to look at the bigger picture instead of latching onto one report.

brooket4312d ago

Call that confirmation bias in action. That study used one specific site, one specific time frame, and measured only honeybees which are a managed livestock species not the native bees actually in trouble.