Flowers pollinated by honeybees make fewer and lower-quality seeds than flowers visited by other pollinators. That could be because honeybees spend more time buzzing between flowers of the same plant than other pollinators do. As a result, more of the plant’s own pollen is deposited back on itself, leading to more inbred seeds, researchers report in Proceedings of the Royal Society B recently.

 

Honeybees command a lot of attention in insect conservation circles, in part because they are important for pollinating our food supply. But the findings emphasize the importance of prioritizing pollinators like wild, native bees, moths and butterflies in conservation efforts too, the researchers say. For the study, ecologists Joshua Kohn and Dillon Travis, both of the University of California, San Diego, painstakingly tracked the pollination of flowers from three native plant species — white sage (Salvia apiana), black sage (Salvia mellifera) and Phacelia distans — in San Diego County.

 

The new finding is concerning, Travis says. Because of honeybees’ methodical pollination habit, it’s likely the results are relevant to other plants. But it’s difficult to know how things will play out in the long term.