Pollen and Nectar Sources for Mason Bees by Month
for the Pacific Northwest*
(time of bloom will depend on location and elevation)
March
Alder, andromeda, quaking aspen, balsamroot, blueberries, buttercup, cherry, chickweed, black cottonwood, crocus, currant, blue elderberry, elm, filbert, forsythia, hazelnut, heath, miner’s lettuce, mustard, dead nettle, fiddleneck, vine maple, big-leaf maple**, photinia, plum, salmonberry, skunk cabbage, sweet gale, skimmia japonica, snowdrops, sweetbox, Oregon grape, vinca, willows, windflower, camellia, huckleberry, hyacinth, tulip trees.
April
Alder, apple, Oregon grape, bearberry (kinnikinnik), birch, black cottonwood, blueberries, buttercup, cascara, cherry, clover, chickweed, crabapple, currant, dandelion, dead nettle, dogwood, Douglas fir (pollen), blue elderberry, elm, fiddleneck, holly, honeysuckle, huckleberry, lupine, miner’s lettuce, oak, Oregon ash, pear, photinia, pine, plum, quaking aspen, salmonberry, skunk cabbage, sweet gale, willow
May
Alder, apple, Oregon grape basswood, bearberry, birch, black locust, blackberry, bog laurel, brassica family, cascara, cherry, clover, chickweed, cotoneaster, crabapple, currant, dandelion, dogwood, grass, hawthorn, holly, honeysuckle, horse chestnut, huckleberry, lupine, madrona, maple, meadowrue, miner’s lettuce, mullein, oak, Oregon ash, pea, pear, plantain, plum, poppy, raspberry, rose, salmonberry, Scotch broom, serviceberry, skunk cabbage, snowberry, spider flower, walnut, roses***
*Not all the sources for nectar and pollen
**Number one source for nectar in the wild
***Open or semi open center