This buzzing is a secret password. The key to a lock.
What this bumblebee is after is pollen. Bumblebees eat pollen. It’s high in protein.
But the flower doesn’t want to give it to just anyone.
So it hides it away, in those bright yellow anthers…
For a flower, that’s unusual.
Most flowers keep their pollen on the outside of the anther. Which is the male part
of the flower. Pollen is basically sperm, for plants.
Most flowers make sugary nectar, too.
They use it as bait to attract bees and other pollinators,
which get coated in pollen along the way.
And since bees are messy, they inadvertently scatter some of that pollen onto the female
part of the next flower they visit.
That’s how most flowers have sex.
But this type of flower doesn’t offer nectar.
The only way to get to its pollen is through those tiny pores at the ends.
But the bumblebee knows just what to do.
It wraps its legs around the flower and bites down on the anthers --
that male part of the flower.
See those wings shaking?
Normally, the bumblebee uses these powerful muscles to flap its wings.
That’s what makes the buzzing sound when they fly.
But here those muscles to vibrate its whole body.
So hard and fast that it makes a louder, higher pitched buzz.
This vibration shakes up the pollen trapped inside the anthers, until...
It spews out, all over the bumblebee.
It’s called buzz pollination -- and you don’t need to a bumblebee to do it.
A tuning fork will do.
The bumblebee grooms the pollen down into sticky sacs on its legs…
carries it back to the hive.
Only a few types of pollinators like bumblebees are capable of buzz pollination.
Honeybees can’t do it.
This field is kind of a free for all.
Think: Las Vegas buffet.
Tons of food, but long lines, lots of competition.
Buzz pollination.. is more like a private club.
By only permitting pollinators that know the secret knock, the flower ups the chances that its pollen
will end up on flowers from the same club -- the same species.
The bumblebee? Well sure it has to work a little harder… and there’s no sweet nectar.
But it’s a reliable pollen stash that almost no one else has access to.
Tomatoes, potatoes, blueberries, all of these need buzz pollination to reproduce.
Much of the food we eat... owes its existence to that buzz.
Our secret password here at Deep Look?
I’ll be honest: It’s that Subscribe button.
Clicking Subscribe releases a cloud of goodwill and gratitude from all of us.
And you’ll find out about each new episode as soon as it's out.
Thanks for watching!