Botanical Chart: Pollination and Pollinators, University of Wisconsin. 

Flowering plants are intimately tied to wind, water, and especially animals to make seeds and complete their life cycles. Showy flowers, big and small, owe their size, shape, perfume and color to the preferences of critters; insects especially may share any number of blooms from different plant species. This poster illustrates the kaleidoscopic diversity of both the flowers and their pollinators (the astute observer will note that bumblebees love blue).

(Available for purchase from the University of Wisconsin.)

Bee Kind, Raw Honey, retro tin. 

resignedtobravery:

Comb, again from my front yard hive last summer, with capped and uncapped honey cells and bee bread. Bee bread is pollen mixed with honey that the bees use for energy during the summer and has more protein in it than pure honey.

(via lynnehoppe)

The Bug Hotel, Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton, West Midlands: “This habitat is home to ladybirds, lacewing, frogs, and toads which help keep the garden pest free.” Photo: Declan O’Doherty.

This bug hotel was made from a pallet using found objects, including bricks, terra cotta, stones, hay, pine cones, blocks and branches. The items are carefully arranged in the pallet slots, filling the horizontal spaces tightly. The end result is a natural work of functional apartment-art for the bugs!

Bee skeps as ornamental architectural elements in the Paris districts. love! love!

Honey Jar, designed by Betsy Kaage. 

Insect house and bee colony on the grounds of the Potager du Roi, where the original gardens date back to the reign of Louis XIV (1678). The King’s gardens were located near his palace in Versailles where he would show off his abundant produce and espaliered fruit-bearing trees.  

Dora Carrington (1893-1932), honey label 1917, for David Garnett. Woodcut.

squaredoor: image: Where to grow your insect army, a solitary bee house photographed by itsjustanalias

(via iheartloons)