Bees Love Cannabis Too!
In the American agricultural landscape, industrial hemp, Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae), is a newly developed and rapidly growing crop. Hemp lacks nectar but, as an exclusively wind-pollinated crop, produces an abundance of pollen in agricultural landscapes during a period of time referred to as floral dearth. Researchers have found that a number of bee species are attracted to these pollen plumes, yet the diversity of floral visitors and their use of hemp in a variety of agricultural contexts remains uncertain.