Jimsonweed Pollinator

The weather forecast for yesterday was for low winds and bright skies so I returned to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to photograph more Texas Wildflowers before the lower temperatures settle in and flowers disappear for the winter. I stopped by the large Jimsonweed plant that is in the courtyard to see if there were any new pristine flowers when I spotted bees hovering around the two flowers that were still open. I mentioned in my previous post that Jimsonweed is highly toxic to both humans and animals.

So, the question is, are these plants toxic to bees? And, is the honey produced from the nectar they gather toxic to us if we eat it? I did some research and the consensus is that the plant and its nectar are not toxic to honeybees. The nectar they collect is mixed with the nectar from many other plants and, thus, diluted significantly before honey makes its way to the consumer. I watched the bees for some time and I did not notice any erratic behavior and they did not break out into strange behavior.

This image was taken with my Sony A7R II Digital Camera using my Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens. The camera was set on Aperture Priority mode with the aperture set at f/16, shutter speed at 1/80th of a second and the ISO set at 3200. I used only natural light to light the subject. This is a single image processed in Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro.

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© 2016 T. Kahler Photography