I usually think of pollen as being bright yellow, but this past weekend I observed a small multi-colored bee covered in white pollen from what appears to be a chicory flower. Who knew that pollen could have different colors?
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Very cool Michael, lovely shot.
Wow , he’s a mess 😉
Lovely shot Mike
Good shot Mike, he is covered in the pollen. Like the sharpness and the colour.
I love those metallic green bees, but never saw one so coated in pollen. As tiny as they are it is such a good photo.
Thanks, Donna. I tried taking quite a few shots of the little bee and this is the one that turned out best. The bee was moving, so it was a little tough to get a clear shot at such close range, but I like the way this one turned out. So you think this is one of the metallic green bees? i thought it might be, but wasn’t sure.
I think so, but it is really pollen covered.
Actually, it comes in a wide variety of colors!
I love looking at the different colours of pollen on the bees. My favourite is when they collect from Marsh Mallow (Althaea officinalis) and the pollen is pink. Amelia
I suspected that you would be much more familiar with the different colors of pollen, given your experience with bees. It’s amazing to see new things all of the time when I am looking at things through a macro lens.
Knapweed is another flower that has white pollen but with a light bluish tint. I like seeing bees that look like they have rolled in it. Nice shot!
What an amazing capture this is. The dust particles are amazing Mike.
Pollen has many colours and these vary across the year too. Purple pollen can be very impressive. Nice photo.
Thanks for the info and the kind words. I guess I need to pay more attention to pollen. it would be really cool to find some purple pollen (or pink, as one of my other readers mentioned)
It’s another aspect of the amazing work of the hive.
I love the brightness of chicory flowers but I never noticed the white pollen before.
I’ve actually photographed them before and I too never noticed the white pollen either. It pays to look really closely!