Civil rights issues are not just for humans. Ecologists at Kew Gardens have discovered that certain plant species use “toxic nectar” to repel the “wrong type” of bees from their flowers.
The “wrong type” of bee in this case is a short-tongued bumblebee. They visit all types of plants and are termed generalists. In tough times however (austerity has affected us all) these bees must resort to robbing nectar from plants which have their nectar deeply hidden, and are usually only pollinated by long-tongued bees. Short-tongued bees, on the other hand, chew through the hood of the plants’ flowers to better access the nectar. This method is to the detriment of the plant as the bees bypass its reproductive structures.
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