Bee Visitation to Three Clover Species (Trifolium spp.) and Common Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) and Establishment of These Floral Resources in Turf
Julia J. Vieira, Casey L. Johnson, Elizabeth M. Varkonyi, Howard S. Ginsberg, Steven R. Alm · 2026
Read Bee Visitation to Three Clover Species (Trifolium spp.) and Common Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) and Establishment of These Floral Resources in Turf by Julia J. Vieira, Casey L. Johnson, Elizabeth M. Varkonyi, Howard S. Ginsberg, Steven R. Alm (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13513277.txt.
Description
Vieira and colleagues planted flowers in lawn turf in 2026 and watched which ones bees visited most. Mown lawns cover vast ground in the United States but give bees no nectar or pollen, and native bee numbers are falling. The team tested three clover types and common selfheal, all plants that stand up to close mowing.
Over two years at two sites, bees used every flower species planted, and they often picked certain blooms even when other flowers were more plentiful. For starting the plants in old turf, covering the ground with weed fabric or using herbicide worked best among five methods tried, which ranged from hard mowing to full soil turning. The authors say flower-rich turf strips can link green spaces and feed bees across towns.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Julia J. Vieira, Casey L. Johnson, Elizabeth M. Varkonyi, Howard S. Ginsberg, Steven R. Alm |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 30 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |