Carl & Audrey Lavin Speaker Series: Celebrating Native Plant Month

Exploring Plant-Pollinator Relationships

Presented by Dr. Jennifer Ison, College of Wooster

Spring starts with bees in the breeches! Learn how queen bumblebees pollinate an early spring wildflower and why it matters.

In her talk, Jennifer will provide a preview of many of the superb forest wildflowers that will be on display during April, an overview of local bumblebee biology, and dig into the pollination of Dutchman’s breeches specifically.

Every spring, there is an amazing display of wildflowers on forest floors. One of these wildflowers is the charismatic Dutchman’s breeches, whose flowers look like pants hanging upside down on the clothesline (hence, its name). Jennifer Ison has been studying Dutchman’s breeches and the queen bees that pollinate it since 2022. Unlike honeybees, queen bumblebees must set up a new hive every spring and spend much of April searching for a nest site. The nectar in the ‘pant legs’ of Dutchman’s breeches provides critical fuel for these exhausting nest-searching flights.

Professor Jennifer Ison is a plant ecologist who focuses on plant reproduction in natural areas. She has been at the College of Wooster, a nearby Small Liberal Arts College, for ten years, working with wonderful undergraduate student researchers. Before her current position, she had a postdoctoral research position at the University of Toronto and did her graduate work at the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Chicago Botanic Garden. She and her ten-year-old kiddo love hiking and camping, and they do a little backpacking. Finally, she’s on a leaf-long quest for the perfect plant pun.

This program will be offered in-person and virtually.

Registration required.