Many favorite flowers for honey bees, like sweetclover, thistle, alfalfa and dandelion, are Eurasian plants too weedy for flower beds. ... The best honey bee plants provide a good supply of both sugary nectar and protein-rich pollen sought after by these and other long-tongued bees.

Do bees like thistle?

breweri) Native bees use thistles too, and will sometimes be found on flowers already teeming with beetles and other native pollinators. Because thistles draw in so many beneficial pollinators, they also bring in predators such as spiders, ready to ambush unsuspecting prey.

Do honey bees forage on thistle?

In North America, the genus Melissodes comprises about 120 species of ground-nesting bees. They are especially fond of plants in the Asteraceae family, including sunflowers and thistles. By day, the females work the flowers and collect pollen on their very hairy legs.