In the course of the examination of whether the hybrids of KINRYOUHEN attract honeybees, it became obvious that MISS MUFFET attracts honeybees as well as or more than KINRYOUHEN does. MISS MUFFET is a hybrid between KINRYOUHEN and C.devonianum. I was sure that C.devonianum also attracts honeybees.
I asked several orchid gardens and finally got a C.devonianum with one flower bud on it by courtesy of Mr. Kojima at the Takagi Farm. The C.devonianum was flowered in April 15, 2001. The color of the flowers was velvety and the size of them was much bigger than KINRYOUHEN's. I immediately put it outside. Then worker bees came to the flowers and slipped into them. I took five flowers and examined whether they attract honeybees. As the photograph below shows, C.devonianum attracts honeybees as strong as KINRYOUHEN and MISS MUFFET.
The natural habitat of C.devonianum is the mountainous area from northern India to Thailand. I am confident that C.devoniunums there also attract honeybees (A. cerana indica), which live in the same area, and benefit from the bees gathering around. In order to study the relationship between C.devoniunums and honeybees, I would like to fly to the mountainous area in Thailand right now.

a bee Forageing a bee C.devonianum	bees are attracted to flowers

---

Prev | Home | Next