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UC Garden Blogs
Lovin' the Lavender
Lovin' the lavender... If you attended the Lavender Festival last weekend at the six-acre Araceli Farms at 7389 Pitt School Road, Dixon, you were in for a real treat. Planted in April 2017, the fields glowed with seven varieties of lavender: Grosso,...
The six-acre lavender fields on the Araceli Farms, on the outskirts of Dixon, glow during the Lavender Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Araceli Farms are planted with seven varieties of lavender: seven varieties of lavender: Grosso, Provence, White Spike, Royal Velvet, Violet Intrigue, Folgate, and Melissa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Cordovan honey bee, the color of pure gold, takes flight through the lavender fields. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Clay's Bees--Clay Ford, owner of the Pleasants Valley Honey Company, Vacaville--pollinate the lavender fields. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A variegated meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum)in the lavender fields. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Western pondhawk (Erythemis collocate) rests on a lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) flutters around the lavender fields of the Araceli Farms in Dixon on June 22. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Maria Gonzalez of Dixon cuts lavender on the Araceli Farms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of the curved knife, perfect for lavender harvesting. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Visitors at the Lavender Festival at Araceli Farms stroll through the vendor area. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Third Graders Learn About Pollinators
(June 17-23 is National Pollinator Week.) "How many species of bees are there in the world?" asks Wendy Mather, program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), as she greets a group of third graders at the Häagen-Dazs Honey...
Wendy Mather (left) program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program, explains the life cycle of bees to a group of third graders from Amador County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wendy Mather (left) program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program shows the third graders how to use a bee vacuum in a catch-and-release activity. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
I can see the bee! There it is! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What kind of butterfly is this? The answer: Monarch! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wendy Mather, program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), tells the students she hopes to see them study entomology at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Volunteer Julia Wentzel introduced the concept of "pollinator specialists" and engaged the students in creating a "pollinator." They then transferred "pollen" to different shaped flowers. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Volunteer Robin Lowry, who managed the “Planting for Pollinators” and “Be a Beekeeper” station, displays a frame. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Students placed "pollinators" inside flowers. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Time to take a photo! Don't say "cheese!" Say "honey!" (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Matthew Hoepfinger, staff research associate in the E. L. Niño lab, presented the live bee demonstration. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hey, I'm a bee! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A little beekeeper shapes a heart. Students took turns trying on the beekeeper protective suits. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Golden Orbweavers Ignore Biological Rules
Size does matter. Have you ever wondered about sexual size dimorphism in the tropical spiders, the golden orbweavers? The females are sometimes 10 times larger and 100 times heavier than their male counterparts. And the webs that the females ...
A female Trichonephila clavipes (formerly Nephila clavipes) is a giant compared to her small male (below). The research covers a complex pattern of sexual size dimorphism in this group of spiders, family Nephilidae. (Image copyright by Chris Hamilton, University of Idaho)
Do You Know Where Your Pollinators Are?
It's National Pollinator Week. Do you know where your pollinators are? If you're thinking bees, butterflies, beetles, birds (hummingbirds) and bats, you're correct. But what about European paper wasps (Polistes dominula)? They're pollinators, too, says...
European paper wasps protecting the nest they're building on the lip of a recycling bin near the Mann lab, UC Davis campus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
European paper wasp chowing down on food on the lip of a recycling bin near the Mann lab, UC Davis campus. Another wasp delivered it to the guard. Maybe it's the remains of a caterpillar? (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Case of Survival of the Flittest
If you visit the Kate Frey Pollinator Garden at Sonoma Cornerstone--and you should, especially during National Pollinator Week--you'll see honey bees, bumble bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, among other pollinators. Today we spotted a male...
Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, nectaring on verbena in the Kate Frey Pollinator Garden, Sonoma Cornerstone. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, heads for more nectar in the Kate Frey Pollinator Garden, Sonoma Cornerstone. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Caught in flight: a Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, in the Kate Frey Pollinator Garden, Sonoma Cornerstone. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
