# Project BudBurst - a mapping resource for beekeepers?



## Kofu (Jan 26, 2011)

Beesource has a "Post Your Bloom Dates" forum. I wonder if anyone wants to help map where and when different bee-friendly species go into bloom?

Looking for information on when certain trees bloom in different parts of the country, I discovered Project BudBurst — which is busily collecting and mapping that information. It's an online resource which was developed a few years ago. I think it's not being used heavily (their main idea seems to be that school children will log data), but beekeepers might see it as something that could serve our needs very nicely.

I searched Beesource and found it was mentioned here in 2011. Well, they have data from 2007, and they're still going today. The interface is a little clunky, but a handful of beekeepers in different parts of the country could set up accounts and learn to use it to track some of our favorite bee-friendly plants. I've contacted BudBurst to see if they're going to be around for awhile more — it would be a shame to start logging data and then see the site go down, but it's been going for nine years now and they have at least a handful of staff, an ongoing blog, and a Facebook page, so maybe they'll stick around for awhile.

If a group of beekeepers want to join their project as a "Partner" organization, they'll want us to identify ten species of particular interest to beekeepers. The idea is not to have an exhaustive list, but a set of indicator species that beekeepers are particularly interested in tracking. They don't have a system that allows tracking more than a set number of species (~300, right now), but we may be able to add to that set. Here's a link to the list of species they have right now: budburst.org/display_all_plants_list.

These are some of the plants on their current list that might be of particular interest to beekeepers:

*Wildflowers and Herbs*

Alfalfa (_Medicago sativa_)
Common dandelion (_Taraxacum officinale_)
White clover (_Trifolium repens_)
*Deciduous Trees and Shrubs*

American linden (_Tilia americana_)
Apple (_Malus pumila_)
Black cherry (_Prunus serotina_)
Black locust (_Robinia pseudoacacia_)
Cherry (other) (_Prunus_ sp)
Chokecherry (_Prunus virginiana_)
Highbush blueberry (_Vaccinium corymbosum_)
Sourwood (_Oxydendrum arboreum_)
Sugar maple (_Acer saccharum_)
Tulip poplar (_Liriodendron tulipifera_)
*Evergreen Trees and Shrubs*

American holly (_Ilex opaca_)
Southern magnolia (_Magnolia grandiflora_)
I'm personally more interested in trees and shrubs. Which others in the list of Wildflowers and herbs are we most interested in monitoring? Any suggestions?

If they want us to narrow our total list down to ten, which ones? Are there any plants not in their list that we'd want to add? It might be nice to have Almond trees, though commercial beekeepers probably have that info pretty well pegged. When I was reading Walt Wright, I got interested in knowing when Locust goes into bloom (it indicates possible swarm preparation), and that's certainly one for the beekeepers' short list. Here's their Live Map for Black Locust. Check out what they have for each year from 2008 to now, to get an idea of how it works — and think about how good it could be if we get a few beekeepers logging data into their system.

Whatever the list of ten, all of us can log data for as many species as we want. I found their system works better if you go through the 'Regular Reports' channel and 'Add a Site' for each place there are plants you'll be logging. Then, for each site you can make a list of the plants/trees in that location, and it's a simple matter later to go in and log data for that species in that location. (Avoid the 'Single Reports' channel, is my advice.)

Can you tell I think this is a great idea?  I've gone ahead and I'm logging blooms for my little pocket of Philadelphia, and I'd love to see other beekeepers involved in this project.

(For comparison, I can log the same data in the Beesource 'Post Your Bloom Dates' system, and we can see the advantages of the online cross-county mapping.)


----------



## RichardsonTX (Jul 3, 2011)

I checked out this website after seeing your post and I'd definitely like to get involved. This would be a way to learn about bloom dates for plants in my area that I am interested in and to get my daughter involved in learning more about plants. 

Thanks for posting this info!


----------



## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

I know that in parts of the US it's true that Black Locust signals the start of the swarm period, but up here, north of its original range (though it has been widely naturalized here) it blooms _after_ the main push of swarms. That may be because it consistently blooms in the second and third week of June here, which is after swarming most years here. 

Different plants bloom in different associations with other blooming plants, and are controlled by different environmental triggers. There are a few plants with remarkably consistent bloom periods (based on a few strong triggers that are similar in almost all areas). The common lilac is one of them that's the most useful (though not a bee forage plant.) But even lilac can be tricked by profoundly aberrant seasons (last year and, it seems to be, this one are two examples.)

However the website's data would be very useful for tracking flows (and also the occasional expected-but-missing flow) and generally increasing knowledge of what local plants are blooming, and when.

But caution should taken in using it to mark specific plants' blooms as signals for certain bee-work activities, as they may not bloom in your area at the same relative point in your bees' annual cycle of growth. In other words, to be useful to you, you have to learn what's in bloom that coincidences with which stages of bee development at your location, and not rely on that information based on other areas, _even for the same plants._

Enj.


----------



## Kofu (Jan 26, 2011)

enjambres said:


> I know that in parts of the US it's true that Black Locust signals the start of the swarm period, but up here, north of its original range (though it has been widely naturalized here) it blooms _after_ the main push of swarms. That may be because it consistently blooms in the second and third week of June here, which is after swarming most years here.


And I did NOT know that from what I was reading of Walt Wright's work. I never really got to try it out, so no direct experience of the mis-match in my part of the country. Thanks!

Anyway, that's the sort of thing that might become more obvious by getting into a project like this. It would be fun to see more observations of Black Locust and to be able to track the progress of bloom dates, and to compare year-to-year. (Add: At least one observation on the map is way out of whack — Sept. 8, 2013 in upstate New York, for full flower of the Locust!? All data to be taken with a dash of salt...)



> Different plants bloom in different associations with other blooming plants, and are controlled by different environmental triggers. There are a few plants with remarkably consistent bloom periods (based on a few strong triggers that are similar in almost all areas). The common lilac is one of them that's the most useful (though not a bee forage plant.) But even lilac can be tricked by profoundly aberrant seasons...


Apparently, phenologists use lilac 'leaf out' with cloned lilacs in different parts of the country as one of the two species anchoring the data for charting leaf out generally. ("Leaf out" — commonly known as "spring."  ) And the data set for Lilacs is pretty well populated in BudBurst. (The other species is honeysuckle, apparently not on the list...)



> However the website's data would be very useful for tracking flows (and also the occasional expected-but-missing flow) and generally increasing knowledge of what local plants are blooming, and when.
> 
> But caution should taken in using it to mark specific plants' blooms as signals for certain bee-work activities, as they may not bloom in your area at the same relative point in your bees' annual cycle of growth. In other words, to be useful to you, you have to learn what's in bloom that coincidences with which stages of bee development at your location, and not rely on that information based on other areas, _even for the same plants._


I think we can experiment with BudBurst's crowd-source mapping service, and find a place for this sort of conversation. Here in Beesource would be fine! Your words of caution are entirely appropriate. We'd have the observed data at the click of a mouse, too. Each particular species has its own map, and you can check the observations for any given year.

In Philadelphia, we've discussed why we seem to get a strong flow in some parts of town and a really weak flow in others, simultaneously (in late June). Knowing which species are blooming (and in the current year) seems to be a big part of the answer.


----------



## trishbookworm (Jun 25, 2016)

Great idea! thanks for pointer. I went ahead and signed up for the following plants:

Red maple
Apple

Canadian Goldenrod (Nope, not under G.)
Canadian thistle
Common Dandelion (so it's not under D. at least it's close.)
White Clover

There were some I wish I could have added - like that whitish aster that blooms sep-nov. I don't think that is hairy golden aster - it's definitely not golden. 

So thanks and I'm on it!


----------

