A honeybee harvests nectar from common milkweed in the evening sun. Note the small orange object attached to the front foot of the bee. That little packet contains milkweed pollen. Milkweed flowers are designed with a slit to trap the bee’s foot temporarily. If the flower has not been visited yet, the little orange pollen packet called a pollinia will stick to it like a policeman’s tire boot as the bee struggles to pull free. The next flower will trap it again, only this time the packet will hopefully fall off in the struggle inside the flower. This leaves the pollen packet behind to fertilize that flower.
