Play · Who grew my lunch?
Bloom to Bite
Help the bee carry pollen from flower to flower. Grow a lunch for the tray.
For grown-ups
Bloom to Bite is a simplified model. Here is the science behind it, and where each statement comes from.
What bees get from flowers
Bees visit flowers for food. Nectar gives a bee energy. Pollen gives it protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. While a bee feeds, pollen sticks to its body and moves to the next flower.
Why the same kind of flower
In the game, a bee must carry pollen from one blossom to another blossom of the same kind. Plants move pollen between flowers of the same species. Many bees also visit only a few kinds of flowers at a time.
What if the bees go away
Many fruits and vegetables grow much less without pollinators. More than three-quarters of the world's food crops rely at least in part on pollination by insects and other animals. Grain crops do not.
- IPBES (2016), Pollinators Vital to Our Food Supply Under Threat, press release on the Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production (opens in a new tab)
- Klein and others (2007), Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274, 303-313, doi 10.1098/rspb.2006.3721 (opens in a new tab)
- McGregor (1976), Insect Pollination of Cultivated Crop Plants, USDA Agriculture Handbook 496 (opens in a new tab)
About this game
The game is a simplified model. Real pollination also depends on the plant variety, the weather and the time of day. Many kinds of bees, and other animals, pollinate crops. The game shows one honey bee and two crops.
- Penn State Extension, Orchard Pollination: Pollinizers, Pollinators, and Weather (opens in a new tab)
- University of Florida IFAS Extension, ENY-2056/IN1311, Pollination of Cucurbita spp. (Squash and Pumpkin) Crops in Florida (opens in a new tab)
- IPBES (2016), Pollinators Vital to Our Food Supply Under Threat, press release on the Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production (opens in a new tab)
The foods in the game
Apple
An apple tree makes good fruit when pollen from another apple tree reaches its blossoms. Bees carry that pollen from blossom to blossom.
- Penn State Extension, Orchard Pollination: Pollinizers, Pollinators, and Weather (opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Forest Service, The Birds and the Bees (opens in a new tab)
- IPBES (2016), Pollinators Vital to Our Food Supply Under Threat, press release on the Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production (opens in a new tab)
Pumpkin
Pumpkin flowers need insects to carry pollen between them. Each flower is open for only a few hours in the morning.
- Chan and Raine (2023), Journal of Pollination Ecology 34, doi 10.26786/1920-7603(2023)751 (opens in a new tab)
- University of Florida IFAS Extension, ENY-2056/IN1311, Pollination of Cucurbita spp. (Squash and Pumpkin) Crops in Florida (opens in a new tab)
- Klein and others (2007), Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274, 303-313, doi 10.1098/rspb.2006.3721 (opens in a new tab)
Bread
People make bread from wheat. Wind pollinates wheat and other grains, or the plants pollinate themselves, so they do not need bees.