Something interesting about strawflowers
It was on a sunny September day that I was in the garden collecting flowers for drying, when I noticed a honeybee on a strawflower, foraging for nectar around the outside of the flower head - have a look at the video below.
Did you know that the colourful, papery displays of strawflowers aren’t petals? They’re called ‘bracts’ and are modified leaves that protect the maturing flowers in the centre of the head and help to attract pollinators, like this honeybee.
The bee is collecting from extrafloral nectaries - nectar-producing glands that aren’t part of the flowers - located at the bases of the bracts. The tiny, yellow reproductive flowers of a strawflower are located in the very centre of the bracts, and you can see them once a strawflower head opens completely - you can see them in the close up photos below. So the bee isn’t actually doing any pollinating at this point, and the nectar is a free gift! Hopefully she’ll remember this food source and return once the flowers open to do a bit of pollinating.
PS - I believe the current accepted taxonomic name for these everlasting paper daisies is Xerochrysum bracteatum although a lot of people still refer to it as Helichrysum bracteatum - I’ve seen it for sale under both names.
