A Patch of Redmaids

Apr 12, 2010

Redmaids aren't red.

They're purple-petaled with white centers and yellow stamens.

The California native wildflower (Calandrinia ciliatais) from the purslane family (Portulacaceae) blooms from February through May. 

Farmers who grow baby spinach and other crops consider it a weed. Honey bees don't. It's a food source that helps them build up their hives in the spring.

If you ever see a patch of redmaids, you'll surely see bees foraging among the bright blossoms.

There's a patch on Hutchison Drive, near the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. New World Carniolan bees reared by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Laidlaw facility, can be seen foraging there.

A patch of redmaids and a bee posse. 


By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Author - Communications specialist

Attached Images:

FIELD OF REDMAIDS,  California native wildflowers, near the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Mixed in are fiddleneck (yellow),  also frequented by bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Field of Redmaids

COVERED WITH POLLEN, an Italian honey bee forages among the redmaids near the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Covered with Pollen

A NEW WORLD CARNIOLAN BEE, from a hive at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, leaves one blossom and heads for another. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

In Flight