Centaurea cyanus, Apis mellifera
Sarah Red-Laird, 1978
Trisaetum Bee Habitat in Cyanotype One
Coast Range Vineyard
Centaurea cyanus, Apis mellifera
Cyanotype, goldleaf paint, Trisaetum/BGO Entomological Collection
Summer, 2022
The common names for Centaurea cyanus are bachelor buttons or cornflower. This ancient plant, native to Europe adorned European, American, and Australian gardens and countrysides for centuries. Seen as a “weed” in its native landscapes, bachelor buttons are now considered endangered in many parts of Europe due to agricultural intensification.
This flower’s nectar is high in sugar, making it especially attractive to bees. But bees aren’t the only ones to enjoy these sweet blossoms, the petals (as well as the rest of the plant) are edible for humans. Not only are they delicious, the flowers themselves have been used as anti-inflammatory medicine for centuries.
The flower’s common name came from a belief (most likely originating in Germany) that if a young man wore the flower in his shirt pocket, and the flower faded too quickly, it was taken as a sign that the man's love was not returned.
This flower grows at the Ribbon Ridge and Coast Range vineyards thanks to a 2020 donation from the GreaterGood Foundation of sixteen acres of their “Oregon Wildflower Mix” for the project.
If you would like to begin, or grow, your own bee garden at home I compiled a simple visual for which flowers germinated and bloomed in the first two years, and which were attractive to bees.
Also, if you would like to envision your garden - here are photo guides, sorted by name and color of all of these flowers, and others in the vineyards.
The bees in this piece are Apis mellifera, honey bees, but many species of bees and other pollinators at Trisaetum’s Ribbon Ridge and Coast Range vineyards love this flower.
While honey bees are the most recognizable be because of their honey, their importance to agriculture, and their recognizable sting and fuzzy stripes - they are not native to the US (though the US does have about 4,000 different species of natives). Our honey bees evolved in Europe, alongside this flower, and this is why you often see them together.
So far BGO has also observed bumble bees, leaf cutter bees, tiny sweat bees, metallic green sweat bees, and small carpenter bees visiting Centaurea cyanus.