Plant identification please

[YorkshireBees]

Last year I let my small back lawn grow long. Partly through not having time to cut it but also I let the clover grown and flower to provide forage for any insects that were interested!

This year I did the same but stopped mowing it much earlier and it has now developed into a real wild patch!

I have loved watching the bumble bees foraging on it for a good month or two and noticed that there were never any honeybees visiting! That is until I decided to bring a polynuc box round as I needed a temporary place for quarantining a new swarm I collected.
This morning I noticed the honey bees foraging like crazy on the same flowers that seem to have taken over the main, previously lawn, area!

I am attaching a couple of shots of the plant / flower to see if any gardening / plant experts can identify it for me please.

 

[freethorpe bees]

Hi, it is Bird's foot trefoil.

 

[alldigging]

Yellow vetch?

 

[tazbee]

 

[Luminos]

It's definitely a legume...doesn't look like the birds' foot trefoil here

 

[Into the lions den]

Its actual English name is the Meadow Vetchling.........quite common........bigger and bushier than Birds foot trefoil

Lathyrus pratensis

 

[YorkshireBees]

Many thanks for all replies.

It seems to have taken over my lawn and I am just planning on strimming / mowing back after it finishes flowering.

Really happy that the bees (and not just bumble) seem to like it!

 

[Jess132]

What an amazing photo

 

[Swarm]

Even sneaking nectar in the same way as they would with beans.

 

[gavin]

Most impressed with Murray's botanical knowledge. I have two degrees in plant science and not all of my colleagues at university could have named it.

Yes, the honeybee is nicking nectar from the back of the flower - using a hole bitten by a bumble bee. One of the short-tongued, strong-jawed bumbles. Honeybees have to go in head-first if they want pollen and will do so for nectar too, but are more than happy to steal nectar that way as it seems to be easier.

G.

 

[Into the lions den]

lol.yeah.like not spotting the Cherry plum back in spring time..................in fact had never heard of the cherry plum.

Seriously though, its almost a beekeepers duty to know your plants, and what is and is not of benefit, the seasonal sequences etc etc. The more your living depends on it the more you should set out to acquire the knowledge.

 

[REDWOOD]

Swansea City Football club's old stadium was called the Vetch as it was erected on a vetch field, just a bit of trivia

 

[chrismcd]

I think there is a critical mass of a flower needed

This morning I noticed the honey bees foraging like crazy on the same flowers that seem to have taken over the main, previously lawn, area!

Yes, I have seen the same thing with geraniums.

Bumblebees visiting every year and honeybees ignore them - and then suddenly they arrive in swarms.

I assume that this is the famous honeybee focussing on one species of flower at a time - and there needs to be sufficient flowers to make it worth their while

 

[Erichalfbee]

How clever.
Is that a hole in the back of the flower to the right and in front of the bee?
I must look at the flowers in my meadow.

 

[gavin]

I'd forgotten about the cherry plum business. It was relatively new to me, I must admit ...

Was in the company of three guys yesterday who make their living from bees, and was rather surprised to find that two of them didn't know what one major bee forage flower looks like. They do now though.

Erichalfbee, yes, there is a hole in the flower in front and to the right, just above the green sepals, and the honeybee has its proboscis in one.