Flowering dogwood feeds the spring insects

In the parks near the Upper West Side, the flowering dogwood stands in full bloom against the green backdrop of newly leafed trees. White bracts spread wide like cupped hands, each cluster holding dozens of tiny yellow-green flowers at its center. The air carries the faint sweet scent of nectar, a signal that draws insects from across the canopy and understory.

The brown-belted bumble bee arrives with a low buzz, her body thick with the russet band that gives her species its name. She lands heavily on a dogwood flower cluster, her weight bending the branch slightly. Her tongue extends to reach the nectar hidden in each small flower, while pollen grains stick to the branched hairs covering her body. As she moves from flower to flower within a cluster, then from cluster to cluster across the tree, she carries pollen between the separate male and female flowers that make up each white display.

This exchange feeds both partners in ways that ripple through the late spring ecosystem. The bumble bee stores nectar in her crop and packs pollen into the baskets on her hind legs, carrying protein and carbohydrates back to her underground colony where workers tend developing larvae. The dogwood receives the cross-pollination it needs to set the bright red berries that will ripen by late summer, feeding migrating birds when insects become scarce. Other native bees join the feast: smaller sweat bees that nest in the ground beneath the trees, and solitary bees that emerge from winter hiding places in dead wood and leaf litter. Beetles climb up from the forest floor, their movements slower but no less purposeful as they chew pollen and lap nectar from the accessible flowers.

The dogwood's timing anchors this burst of activity. Its flowers open just as many insects complete their spring emergence, providing concentrated nutrition when other flowering trees have finished their brief displays. The tree blooms for only two weeks, but those weeks coincide with the peak demand from new bee colonies, emerging beetles, and the caterpillars of moths that will pupate in the soil below. Even the invasive spotted lanternfly, now established in these urban forests, feeds on the tree's sap, though it gives nothing back in return.

Close your eyes and listen for the steady hum that fills the air around a flowering dogwood. The sound deepens and fades as bumble bees move between trees, punctuated by the higher buzz of smaller bees and the occasional rustle of a beetle navigating between flower clusters. When you open your eyes, watch how the white bracts catch and hold the filtered light beneath the canopy, each tree a bright anchor in the green understory.