By Tab Moura
There’s been a lot of buzz around Cannabis lately, and I’m not just talking about legalization. So we know that Cannabis is beneficial, it’s been known to treat numerous health conditions, head to toe, from Glaucoma to Plantar Fasciitis… but what if our beloved Devil’s Lettuce is also capable of saving the bees?
I was reading a post about dwindling bee populations this morning, and it was just so unBEElievable, that I had to google this further. I, for one, tend to look at everything through a “what are my options” filter… so I decided to put on my researcher-hat and answer my own question: what are our options to help save the bees? This led me down an interesting rabbit hole. Many humanitarian projects can take years to produce results, so I didn’t just look for ways to “save” them, but ways to attract them- ways to feed them.
An article out of Environmental Entomology stood out– as did their solution.
So we already know that the Cannabis plants are nutrient dense, despite being famous for their psychoactive benefits, because it’s also beneficial in its raw form. Now, take humans out of the equation, and think of the Cannabis plant as a crop with flowers. The plant is so powerful that it’s pollen rich flowers have been found to draw up to 16 different bee species, including the Honey bee. And they also found that the taller your cannabis or hemp plant is, and the more you plant, you can see an increase of up to 17x more bees visiting your crop.
The most interesting part of this study is that Bees do not have an endocannabinoid system, thus they do not directly benefit from the plant’s medicinal properties. Also, this isn’t like traditional flowers, because it
lacks a nectar taste and is not the usual amber color they prefer. Scientists admit they don’t completely understand what draws Bees to cannabis plants, only that they have observed bees visiting these sites in growing numbers. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that bees prefer flowering male plants, over their
female counterparts, but their presence in your community will increase pollination among all outdoor plants.
Did you ever imagine you could help save the planet by growing your own weed? Uncle Sam might not be easy to admit it, but we weren’t exactly waiting for their permission anyway.
Let’s grow weed and save the bees.
