Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
European Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) visit Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) plants growing near a pond at Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, in Colorado County, TX, USA. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but it looks like the bees are attracted to a white sap coming from leaf scars on the Sumac stems. It looks like the Bees mostly don't go directly to the sap, but they accidentally step on it and spread it on the stems, and so the Bees seem to investigate all parts of the stems and also the feet of other Bees.
As far as I can tell, the liquid isn't coming from extrafloral nectaries. So the sap may not be a food source for the bees. Bees do apparently sometimes collect resinous sap from other kinds of trees to make propolis (which is used by them as a glue or sealant), but this sap looks different from the sap they would normally use. So maybe there are just chemicals in the sap that attract the bees? Or maybe they use it for some other purpose?
European Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) visit Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) plants growing near a pond at Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, in Colorado County, TX, USA. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but it looks like the bees are attracted to a white sap coming from leaf scars on the Sumac stems. It looks like the Bees mostly don't go directly to the sap, but they accidentally step on it and spread it on the stems, and so the Bees seem to investigate all parts of the stems and also the feet of other Bees.
As far as I can tell, the liquid isn't coming from extrafloral nectaries. So the sap may not be a food source for the bees. Bees do apparently sometimes collect resinous sap from other kinds of trees to make propolis (which is used by them as a glue or sealant), but this sap looks different from the sap they would normally use. So maybe there are just chemicals in the sap that attract the bees? Or maybe they use it for some other purpose?
