so hello and welcome I'm Frederick Dunn and today I'm walking you around my yard I've grown all of
these trees in other words I started planting them in the late 90s but today we're going to
look at a specific tree this one right here it's a Washington Hawthorne tree and why am I going to
point this one out because it's great for bees and right now in the month of June it has honeybees
all over it in fact when you walk around it sounds like the bees are swarming and that's because the
bees and other pollinators are on these blossoms and these blossoms will last for almost two weeks
so that's pretty darn good in the early summer late spring here in the northeastern United States
just listen to all the bees but there are other things here on the flowers and I'll Point them
out as we go this one was planted it was the size of a pencil back in 2000 and I got it from the
Arbor Day Society used to get 10 trees every time you renewed your membership there and this is one
of those so just over a foot tall and here it is today and you might be wondering how big will it
get well they'll grow 20 to 35 feet in height if you've got a small area to grow for your
pollinators like the honeybees trees are fantastic way to go because it's like a vertical garden
and we're going to look at this one up and down I have several of these by the way
and we see honeybees on the flowers and some people think ah the honeybees will out compete our
native pollinators but what I want you to see here is that the bees are sharing these blossoms with a
lot of other pollinators and some that you might not really expect now those are honeybees right
there and of course they need the nectar for their energy source but right there's a firefly lowered
left AKA lightning bug then the Little Beetle came over the top and you'll see lots of native
bees too so if you're teaching kids about nature these are fantastic trees to visit in early June
later in the year even wild turkeys fly to these trees to eat the fruit that's produced from this
pollination activity and of course the pollen the bees need to produce brood back in their hive
let's look around you might notice the vantage point is up high and that's because my camera is
on a pole and I'm sticking it up into the canopy area which is pretty darn dense on this tree now
they live over a hundred years in fact I did some basic research and found out that there
are some specimens over 400 years old with the oldest specimen being in Washington DC Georgetown
so that's interesting I haven't seen it couldn't find any pictures of it but I can imagine that's
one gnarly looking tree if it's over 400 years old very interesting so if you're planning for
longevity these are good trees see what else we can find looking around on these flowers here
lots of honeybees for sure and this is a honeybee you can see the pollen on her hind legs
she'll take that back and put it in the hive and they'll ferment that and turn it
into Beaver this right here is a fly it's a b mimic look at that you might think that's a b
but look it just has two Wings it's got some bee coloration which probably helps defend it there
but uh so even flies because they're after nectar they end up pollinating as well
a tiny fly there that's out of focus oh no that's a native bee that is a solitary bee
top left there with pollen on its hind legs
so we're providing for other bee species there are Orchard bees here mace and bees
bumblebees of course and you can tell that the nectar is not that heavy because the bees don't
spend very much time on the flowers but when there are several trees like this going around and a lot
of bees attending to them we're getting a pretty good nectar flow and because the bees are ignoring
the Clover which is in the field around this tree we know that they're showing a preference
for the sugar content here in these blossoms on this Washington Hawthorne tree there's also a
legend that Paul Bunyan because of the thorns on these trees and he used the branches for a back
scratcher don't know don't know too much about Paul Bunyan but that was something I came across
there again worker honeybee oh another fly came and went
of course little beetles working their way around and here's that house fly
even those come after the nectar so I guess they're pollinators
those are the Thorns nice and long there so
if you like thorny trees thus the name Hawthorne Washington because it came from Washington and yes
it's a native tree so I hope you found this short video about the Washington Hawthorne
tree to be beneficial I hope you get trees that are valuable to pollinators thanks for watching