The strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) is a typical Mediterranean evergreen shrub species that can reach tree size and exceed 4 meters in height. It is very common in many rugged areas of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula, as long as they are not at high altitudes, and can form small mixed forests together with cork oaks, gall oaks, or holm oaks. It adapts very well to gardens, parks, and cities in such a way that it has taken deep root in the popular culture of the interior lands of the Iberian Peninsula, sharing small legends with animals such as bears and forming part of well-known and popular emblems such as the coat of arms of the City of Madrid.
They bloom every year in autumn in the form of numerous clusters with small white and pink millimeter-sized pitchers. Their flowers are monoecious (hermaphroditic) and have both female (ovary) and male (stamens) organs. Although they are capable of self-fertilization, they are expert users of insects to carry out much more effective pollination, creating an important symbiotic link with bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, and wasps.
Some species of bees, such as the common European bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) or the European honeybee (Apis mellifera), have undergone an evolutionary process highly adapted to this type of flower, which possesses relatively deep calyxes and stamens where pollen must be obtained with some effort and dedication. The workers of European bumblebees have developed different techniques to extract the nutritious powder from the strawberry trees and dedicate themselves to systematically and obsessively assaulting each and every one of the tree’s flowers, as if they were fully aware that the subsistence during winter of the young queens of the hive depended on these last food gatherings.
Apidae is a family of insects with some genera that have developed a long proboscis specialized for pollen collection. They insert this organ into the depth of the flower’s calyx and extract the small grains of pollen, which they later compact with their front legs. Once the proboscis is clean, they store it in the form of small balls adhered to their hind legs and in this way transport it to the hive. Sometimes, when the flowers have already been taken repeatedly, pollen extraction becomes complicated, and bumblebees resort to a different technique: they beat their wings at a specific and precise speed, producing an intense vibration that causes the pollen grains still in the stamens to detach to the bottom of the calyx and can then be swept up with the proboscis. This technique produces a very characteristic sound in the form of a very high-pitched buzz that is easily recognizable, forming part of the music that constantly sounds around strawberry trees and flower fields.
With the arrival of cold weather, the trees still retain some flowers that continue to be visited by the Bombus. Bees, wasps, and other dipterans that tolerate cold less have already disappeared a few weeks earlier, and the ground around the strawberry trees is carpeted with fallen small flowers. It is common to still see some exhausted bumblebees on the ground, slowly working the flowers deposited there. Unable to fly and return to the hive, they will continue to do the only thing they have known how to do during their short lives: extract pollen from the remains of flowers scattered on the grass until they exhale their last breath and finally die due to exhaustion and low temperatures.
This November has been especially mild, the strawberry tree has bloomed intensely, and I have been able to enjoy the activity of insects around it. I have dedicated an entire month to carefully observing and studying the behavior of all the animals that have approached its flowers, awakening my curiosity to read and dig a little more into their life cycles and biology in general. I believe that observation was always a derivative of meditation, the restless mind seeks peace in everything that can help it manufacture endorphins and provide calm and pleasant moments: abstraction and loss of the notion of time interrupted only by the coolness of the evening and the buzzing of bumblebees returning to their hives.
Daniel Agut
| Season 7. Chapter 4 | Polinizadores |
| Recording data | Autum 2024 |
| Duration | 3:38 minutes |
| Date of issue | Frebruary 12, 2025 |
| Location | Alovera. Guadalajara. Castilla la Mancha. España |
| Image and soun | Daniel Agut |
| Edition | Daniel Agut |
| Opusculum | Daniel Agut |
| Music | Daniel Agut |
| Song | Unedo |
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