California poppy
A brilliant orange Californian annual that closes at night and in dull weather, offering abundant pollen and no nectar at all. It is the state flower of California, thrives on the poorest dry ground, and is one of the clearest garden examples of a pollen-only plant.
Value to bees
- Nectar
- None
- Pollen
- Very high
- As a honey crop
- Not a honey source
- Which bees, and why
- Visited for pollen alone. In California a large community of native bees works it, and several small solitary species are effectively specialists on it. Bees frequently sleep inside the closed flowers overnight.
Fully open cups with completely exposed anthers, and nothing else on offer.
- Worth knowing
- No nectar at all and an outstanding pollen source over a long season.
Flowering
- In flower
- May to September (northern hemisphere)
A long summer season, with flowers opening only in sunshine.
Growing it
- Conditions
- Full sun on poor, dry, free-draining soil. Rich ground produces leaves rather than flowers.
- Size
- 20-40 cm tall.
- Native range
- California and Oregon, on grassland, roadside and disturbed dry ground. Naturalised widely and invasive in parts of Australia and Chile.
- Suits
- Small gardens, Containers and window boxes, Meadow or wildflower area, Large gardens
- Sow directly where it is to grow; it has a taproot and transplants badly.
- Poor dry soil gives far better flowering than rich ground.
- Self-seeds freely and returns each year without help.
What it looks like
Silky cup-shaped flowers in brilliant orange, yellow or cream above finely divided blue-green foliage. The flowers close at night and on cloudy days.
Sources
- Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production — Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (2016) · Systematic review Link
- The Bees of the World — Johns Hopkins University Press (2007) · Textbook
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides covering this plant
- Pollen plants explainedPollen is protein and it is what bee larvae are made of. A garden with abundant nectar and no pollen supports adult bees and produces no new ones.
- How to make a garden genuinely useful to beesMost bee-friendly advice covers flowers in June, which is the one thing bees are least short of. The gaps are at the ends of the year — and half the problem is not flowers at all.
- A bee-friendly garden in the United StatesAround 4,000 native bee species and a continent too large for one planting list. What transfers is the method — regional natives, a long season and bare ground — rather than the species.
Tools for planning planting
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?