This summer we completed our third and final field season surveying pollinator visitation to native plants and native cultivars! We will maintain our experimental garden for one additional season, to finish up some plant measurements and data collection missed in our initial three seasons. This post will serve as a 2022 field update in addition to summarizing some of our preliminary results from our field observations!

---

Study Plants (2020-2022)

Photo	Scientific Name	Common Name	Plant Type
	Achillea millefolium	Yarrow	Native
	Achillea millefolium ‘Calistoga’*	Yarrow	Cultivar
	Achillea millefolium ‘Salmon Beauty’	Yarrow	Cultivar
	Achillea millefolium ‘Moonshine’**	Yarrow	Cultivar
	Aquilegia formosa	Western Red Columbine	Native
	Aquilegia x ‘XeraTones’		Cultivar (hybrid)
	Camassia leichtlinii	Great Camas	Native
	Camassia leichtlinii ‘Caerulea Blue Heaven’	Great Camas	Cultivar
	Camassia leichtlinii ‘Sacajawea’	Great Camas	Cultivar
	Symphyotrichum subspicatum	Douglas’ Aster	Native
	S. subspicatum ‘Sauvie Sky’	Douglas’ Aster	Cultivar
	S. subspicatum ‘Sauvie Snow’	Douglas’ Aster	Cultivar
	Clarkia amoena	Farewell-to-spring	Native
	Clarkia amoena ‘Aurora’	Farewell-to-spring	Cultivar
	Clarkia amoena ‘Dwarf White’	Farewell-to-spring	Cultivar
	Clarkia amoena ‘Scarlet’**	Farewell-to-spring	Cultivar
	Eschscholzia californica	California Poppy	Native
	E. californica ‘Mikado’	California Poppy	Cultivar
	E. californica ‘White’	California Poppy	Cultivar
	E. californica ‘Purple Gleam’**	California Poppy	Cultivar
	Nemophila menziesii	Baby Blue Eyes	Native (California)
	N. menziesii ‘Penny black’	Baby Black Eyes	Cultivar
	N. menziesii ‘Snow White’	Baby Blue Eyes	Cultivar
	Sidalcea asprella ssp. virgata***	Rosy checkermallow	Native
	Sidalcea malviflora ‘Purpetta’***		Cultivar
	Sidalcea malviflora ‘Party Girl’***		Cultivar

---

We conducted 5-minute visual observations on our study plants over three seasons. During these observations, we recorded all insects that interacted with a plant. These interactions included foraging, resting, basking, mating, etc. We recorded insect IDs to morphological group levels, as many bees are hard to identify to species in the field! We were able to identify common bumble bees, honey bees, butterflies, and a few other insects to the species level, but many were identified to groups for ease (e.g. ‘green bees’, ‘black bees’, ‘leafcutter bees’).

Field Season Stats

Year	# Sample Dates	# Collected Pollinators	# Observed Pollinators
2020	28	2159	6238
2021	33	2471	6225
2022	29	~2000	~4700

---

Is there a difference in native bee visitation to native plants and their cultivars?

Our initial graphs show a subtle preference for native types by native bees. Douglas’ Aster, California Poppy, Farewell to Spring, and Columbine (4/7) have higher visitation by native bees when looking at cumulative and mean counts. The difference is marginal for Douglas’ Aster, but trends for the other three plants are strong. The remaining three species (Yarrow, Baby Blue Eyes, Camas) are difficult to assess, based on these figures alone.

Across these seven species, we do see differences in visitation between natives (wild types) and native cultivars. Whether these differences are statistically significant, and whether there is a trend across all plant groups, remains to be seen!!!

---

Subscribe to the Garden Ecology Blog to receive future updates on native-cultivar research and more news from the lab.

---

I want to recognize my amazing Bee Team this year, as this field season would not have been possible without them! I am grateful for all of their hard work and their success in managing this project while I was away numerous times this season. They are thoughtful, inquisitive, and resourceful students, all of whom would make amazing lab or field technicians upon their graduation this spring! Nicole is not pictured below, but also deserves recognition for all her contributions to this project. Thank you all 🐝