Bee on Sourwood flowers

I wandered into my yard this morning, noticed a very small bee (wasp?) visiting the flowers on my sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) tree. It looked too big to get inside the little bell (sourwood is related to heather and has similar flowers), so I kept watching to see what it was up to. Once I looked very closely, I could see it land on each flower and make a little hole, then stick it's ?proboscis? in for several seconds. It appeared to be eating . Then it would go to the next. I took these photos with my iPhone, I can't believe how good they turned out, once I magnified them. I thought it was probably cheating, and getting nectar without pollinating the flower. Clever little bee to get breakfast this way.

I went back a few minutes later with a macro lens, sadly the bee was gone, but I took these photos of the holes. The ones that showed up well were older ones with browned edges. Almost all of the bells had holes. While I was taking photos, an even smaller bee came along. It climbed into the hole, spent about a minute inside, then came out the bottom. It did this to several of the flowers. I guess it was a more convenient entrance than going in the bottom (I did see it go in via the bell one time).

Wow Pistil, who knew? Sly little wasp...

Very nice photos

How do you like this tree Pistil? It just popped up on my radar today as a suitable tree for screening a raised deck. Do you have any pics of it in autumn attire?

Sourwoods are garbage can trees...

Garbage can trees? Sorry I'm not as good as everyone else at reading between the lines....

I'll just enjoy yours, VV.
(And your franklinia of course.)
I've decided to stick with marigolds.

Sourwood is an elegant tree; I wish I could grow it here. Oh well, can't have them all. The fall color reminds me of Sour Gum -- beautiful.

Yes, the Nyssa sylvatica is similar in fall color. My choices are still between that, Yellowwood, and this Sourwood. I really like the Sourwood though.

I am happy about the fall wine-red color of my little garbage can trees. I wanted a small deciduous tree with fall color, not a widely spreading tree. Sourwood reportedly grow slowly here and do not reach maximal height.
Sequoia- somewhere here there are some threads about my little trees. They are on all kinds of lists of 'recommended trees' for Seattle, but hardly anyone actually has one, and hardly anyone sells them! I have now figured out why-they are the devil to get going here. I recalled the intense fall color from youthful backpacking trips in the east, and Seattle is mostly evergreens (changing rapidly as so many folks have planted colorful trees in the last 30 years).
Anyway, my trials and tribulations are in those other threads. My two strange sideways trees are growing better now, possibly thanks to some unknown symbiont. I traded a DGer in Alabama some hybrid iris for a box of fresh soil from under an established sourwood last year!) One of my trees has a branch that released itself from the sideways plagiotropic growth that had been established because the nursery owner had propagated the trees from cuttings. That branch has made strong growth this year and I will make it the leader. Meanwhile I bought seeds and sprouted my own babies last year (used some of the Alabama soil), and I have little ones in the yard too. They look fine and happy. I will post photos of fall color in a month or so, they are just beginning to turn. Sourwood seeds are easy, you can sprout them in the spring, or use 'wintersowing' and just let them come up in the spring when they are ready, both worked for me. I don't know if the symbiont thing is real or not, my better growth this year could just be that they were finally established.
Here are photos from today. I like the late summer flowers.

No photos :-(

So is that why VV is referring to it as your 'garbage can' tree? You don't think I'll have as much difficulty establishing one? Perhaps it's your climate. I can't believe they are starting to change already. Yesterday it was 91, it's hard to think about autumn.

Sequoia, get ready - we're sending a taste of fall your direction soon - was 95 last weekend, I hear high is going to be upper 60's this weekend.

Yeah you guys are going to be 'cold' coming up. I saw that St. Louis is supposed to have a low of 49 coming up. That was on TWC.this morning I think.

Dangit, the site was malfunctioning in many ways that day. I will try again:

The moniker "garbage can tree" comes from the innumerable times (along with Franklinia alatamaha to which Wee can attest) that gardeners have lamented their inability to establish and grow Oxydendrum arboreum - having to put their poor spent little bodies out with the trash.

I believe this species - along with others notoriously difficult to establish outside their normal growing regions like American Beech and Stewartia - needs that special something that comes with the soil of their native environment. It doesn't hurt to otherwise mimic the proper pH, moisture regime, sun exposure, etc. - but sometimes mycorrhizal associations and other symbiotic relationships have evolved for a reason. All the good intentions and efforts by the best of plantsmen won't change that.

Nice pics! It's definitely a pretty tree.

Thanks for explaining that to me VV. Do you think it will be difficult to establish in my area? I don't think I'm technically in native range I don't think I'm far from it.

I don't know your area intimately, but if your soil regime is similar to where this species grows then that is half the battle.

Sourwood ranges pretty much up and down the Appalachians - which you are near to. Here is the USDA PLANTS map for Sourwood:

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=OXAR

Notice the "whiteout" for the central KY Bluegrass region - notoriously karst and calciphilous - where Sourwood is nowhere to be found. Yet a county away - 15 miles maybe - Sourwood capriciously seeds itself into the more acidic soils of an entirely different parent geology from which has arisen entirely different plant associations. I'd expect no different up in Pennsylvania, where the folds of the uplifted Appalachian range has many bizarre characteristics depending on which strata is exposed where and at what angle. I wonder if greenthumb99 is e-listening...

Looking at your end of the state, I see a similar "whiteout". I'd say that is entirely due to your soils. It definitely isn't due to temperature range. Sourwood shows up in Butler County, which is one of the coldest growing zones in PA, where Orlando Pride tested and selected the most cold hardy forms of Ilex opaca - the Pride Series.

None of this means "don't try it". It just means go in with your eyes wide open. What Pistil tried (with the bucket-full of soil from Sourwood native haunts) was a good move. Also know that one can just as well import pathogens with alien soil, too.

Hi Sequoia- I just did my quick look to see if your location has native Sourwood. Here is what I did. I googled Lilitz,PA and found you are in Lancaster County, PA, then clicked on my bookmark to the USDA Plant Database, searched for Sourwood under common name because it is easier than the scientific one for this species, and zeroed in on the map to see if it is in your county. It is not native there, but it is in Chester County next door-so you might have a good chance.The USDA Plant Database is really quite cool, and pretty easy to learn to use. Maybe you could drive over there and dig up a little sapling with some native soil and symbionts!

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=OXAR

Oh great minds think alike!

I think it is just a time zone difference...

I saw one today at the local park but it didn't look the best. The leaves were in full color change, which is odd since the weather has not been cold at all. If it's drought stress, which is possible, I don't know if I liked that it was in full color change. This specimen was dark maroon, not very great. The Nyssa sylvatica outshines, plus my wife wasn't a big fan although I told her that wasn't a nice specimen. This one did have a vine growing up in it and a bunch of weeds about.