Spring 2008 Vol.32, No.1 What’s the buzz about bees? Ann K. Fathman As you walk through the native plant almost all of our wildflowers and about garden at the Arboretum, look closely one-third of our vegetable, fruit and nut at the California poppies, and you may crops. Today, as wild lands disappear, see bumblebees, honey bees, sweat bees. there is less habitat for the bees, but Look at the native sunflowers, and you research suggests that gardeners can play may find even more kinds of bees. These a role in helping provide habitat for these bees and the more than 1,600 native ‘prolific pollinators’. species of bees in California are among Gordon Frankie, an entomologist and the most important pollinators in the professor at UC Berkeley, has been trying Artwork by Edna Vollmer world. In California, 85 to 95 percent of to learn more about this bee population native flowering plant species depend on and what plants they prefer. Frankie, a Butterfly Monitoring bees for pollination. These bees pollinate specialist in bee behavior, has studied bee diversity and frequencies Project Report, 2007 of bees for over 10 years. Thanks to a small group of dedicated His Urban Bee Project has volunteers, especially Edna Vollmer, been documenting bee the Arboretum has had its butterfly populations at several populations monitored every week California sites where he from early spring to November for the and his students are learning last four years. Comparative data for about which flowering the past four seasons are presented in plants attract native bees the table below. Butterfly counts this and how urban gardens last spring were delayed until May support bee populations. 16th due to heavy and late rains. His group has identified The 2007 season saw a near return more than 80 species in of total butterfly numbers counted in Berkeley, and Frankie 2005 after considerably fewer counts thinks that even more may in 2006. A few more species were be identified in Santa Cruz encountered in 2007 (25 species) over with its wide diversity of 2006 (21 species). Unlike the 2005 plants. season, where weekly average counts Frankie’s research focuses were nearly 56 butterflies, 2006 saw mostly on native bees, but a reduction in the total number of non-native or exotic bees species encountered (29 in 2005, 21 are included in his counts. in 2006) and the numbers of most Native bees such as bumble species were lower overall except for bees and leaf cutter bees the Common Ringlet (223 in 2005, have evolved with their 140 in 2006). Most of the species not native plant hosts and have encountered in 2006 were species only always been in California. infrequently recorded in previous Non-natives, such as the years. If you would like to take part honeybee, have been in this interesting work please contact continued on page 3 Linda Willis or Edna Vollmer for Honeybee (Apis mellifera) visiting Erica. Photo by former Arboretum information. employee, Mark Oatney, www.oatney.com chart on page 5 news & notes The Bulletin of the UCSC Arboretum Associates Volume 32, No.1 Spring 2008 The Bulletin is published quarterly by the UCSC Arboretum Associates, a non-profit organization that provides support for the Arboretum at UCSC. Please send requests or questions to: Bulletin Editor UCSC Arboretum 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 email: [email protected] 2008 Arboretum Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon Arboretum Associates Officers Peggy Williams, President Matthew Thompson, Vice President Dried Flower & Succulent Wreath Sale; Paula Cole, Secretary Board Members a Great Success! Those above and the following: Last Fall, the Arboretum held a two-day sale of one-of-a-kind, hand-made wreaths John Bost Lynda Haworth and decorations in time for the holidays. Live succulent wreaths and plants were also Joni Janecki offered. Without a chance to catch a breath, all of the succulent wreaths and most of Carole Kelley the dried wreaths sold out. More than $10,000 was raised to support the Arboretum. Mary Ann Leer A special Thank You to the volunteers and staff who helped with this grand success. Janet Lever-Wood Norrie’s also enjoyed a busy weekend during the sale. Lincoln Taiz Ex-Officio Daniel Harder, Executive Director Patrick Elvander Taxonomy Trail Ready for a Visit Ray Collett, Director Emeritus With generous support from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust, gifts from Jeff Rosendale, Past President Arboretum Associates members, and students and colleagues of Patrick Elvander, the Alison Galloway, Vice Provost, Academic Affairs permanent signs are in place alongside the Patrick Elvander Taxonomy Trail on the World Tour. The trail passes through the major gardens at the Arboretum. The attractive, Arboretum Staff aluminum signs present horticultural and conservation information on the plant and Daniel Harder, Executive Director its plant family designed to be of interest to visitors and students. An accompanying Ray Collett, Director Emeritus brochure, designed for plant taxonomy students, has information about identification Brett Hall, Director of Horticulture and classification of plant families. Plan a walk along the Taxonomy Trail on your next Stephen McCabe, Director of Education Tad Sterling, Development Director visit and learn about plant families. Helen Englesberg, Nursery Manager Tom Sauceda, Curator N.Z. Collection Melinda Kralj, Curator Aust. Coll. California Department of Parks and Recreation Ron Arruda, Curator S.A. Collection Susie Bower, Administrator and the Arboretum: Working Together Rick Flores, Curator Calif. Collection The CA Department of Parks and Recreation is working with the Arboretum to José Reyes-Olivas, Performance Coordinator harvest seed and then grow 120,000 coastal plants to be transplanted into a revegetation Francis Campbell, Facilities Manager, Curator project on the north side of Laguna Creek. This area is being restored to convert Stephanie Hudson, Assistant Nursery existing agricultural land to native vegetation. The seeds were harvested last fall and Manager this winter and are now sown in easily planted tubes. The project requires extensive Arboretum Phone: (831) 427-2998 protected space for growing the seedlings. The Long Marine Lab and the Center for Arboretum Fax: (831) 427-1524 Ocean Health, through the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, allowed Norrie’s Gifts: (831) 423-4977 us to occupy large poly houses for this work down near the Long Marine Lab. Francis Website: http://arboretum.ucsc.edu Campbell is expertly managing this project. The 18-month contract is the type of work Jean and Bill Lane Library: the Arboretum expects to be increasingly involved in as regional needs for the expertise http://www.library.ucscarboretum.org/ increases. Support from this contract allows the Arboretum to establish a long-term seed openbiblio/opac/index.php storage facility to clean and process the seed. This facility provides low-temperature and low-humidity conditions for seed storage necessary to establish a repository of collected native and accessioned collection seed. 2 Spring 2008 • Volume 32 • Number 1 director’s note gifts from donors. Some proposals are still Department of Conservation (DOC), being decided on. Despite our best efforts Brett and his team will work closely and without additional support from the with nursery owners and DOC staff UCSC, we are still struggling to cover to gather cuttings and seeds to help costs of maintenance and upkeep of the build the New Zealand collection at the collections. To make matters worse, the Arboretum. Expect a report on this trip in crisis within the California state budget is an upcoming issue of the Bulletin. Many forcing the UC and UCSC to look where of the plants collected in New Zealand additional cuts can be made to address the by Tom Sauceda, Rick Flores, and me proposed 10% budget cut across all state in late 2006 are now planted out in the entities. Although the Arboretum only garden. During this last visit I gathered receives a fraction (12%, one salary) of our nearly 20 species of ferns as spores and support from the state budget through was provided nearly 35 species as seed the UCSC, even this funding may be for adding to our collections. Plan a visit eliminated forcing additional burden and and see these wonderful additions to our Dear Arboretum Friends, pressure on the Arboretum. We are doing collections and display. More than 95 Arboretum volunteers all we can with grant writing, raising Despite overriding issues of support attended the annual Volunteer revenue, and working with donors in the and funding keeping us all occupied and Appreciation Luncheon on February hope that sufficient funds can be raised concerned, opportunities to maintain and 13th. Hosted by Arboretum staff, these and we can continue to flourish and grow our collections and to collaborate gatherings are our opportunity to thank move forward with our exciting future continue. As a collection, our value to all of the Arboretum’s volunteers for the development plans. Every bit of support human society and global conservation is tremendous contribution each make to the helps and any amount of gift Arboretum in the viability of our rich plant collections operations of the Arboretum. On average, Associate members can provide is greatly and the expert knowledge of Arboretum volunteers at the Arboretum provide 750 appreciated. The Arboretum truly needs staff. As climate change is realized and hours of service each month in all aspects your help now. loss of biodiversity and habitat continues, of the Arboretum from running Norrie’s I recently returned from a near three- the importance of botanical gardens like to making dried wreaths to propagating week trip to New Zealand to gather the Arboretum will increase to mitigate plants for the collection and sales. This first-hand information and observations these changes and conserve the greatest level of volunteer support is the same as on how the light brown apple moth diversity of plants.