GARDEN ZONE
However , until recently , humans remained naive about the intricacies of “ bees and the flowers and the trees ”. Pollination was not scientifically described until around 1750 , and even today , it ’ s not fully realised or contemplated that honey is actually just a delicious sideline . The true service of bees , pollination , is of immeasurable greater value .
SO DO THE FLOWERS
In our human-centric worldview , we are easily inclined to forget that the world as it appears today has been shaped more by insects than by ourselves . And that the world ’ s ecosystems will manage fine without us but not without insect pollinators . We also tend to forget that flowers are not actually for us . Because in the healthy functioning of ecosystems , we are mere opportunistic passengers .
Plants are the foundation of life on our planet . Plants can reproduce on their own . However , this carries an evolutionary disadvantage : genetically identical plants are poorly equipped to adapt to changing environmental conditions or colonise new ecological niches . The evolutionary solution was pollination , especially crosspollination between different plants – a process that combines genetic material and allows room for potentially advantageous mutations . This evolutionary shift was so successful that flowering plants , displaced conifers and other
79 MARKtoe ! September 2023