EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Large-flowered Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia grandiflora), Family Scrophulariaceae
with unidentified ant
Mosier, Oregon, USA

Explanation:  These beautiful blooms have a visitor.  With its bicolored flowers, this spring-blooming annual has the appropriate and wonderful name of "large-flowered blue-eyed Mary."  But what is in Mary's blue eye?

This unidentified ant is likely on a search for sweet nectar.  Dr. Elizabeth Elle notes that blue-eyed Marys have extrafloral nectaries or packets of nectar occurring outside the flower, in this case on their leaves.  This ant is probably looking for these sweet nectar "tears" of Mary's blue eyes.  In return, the plant might benefit from the ants that defend it against herbivorous invertebrate invaders.

But bees are the main pollinators of large-flowered blue-eyed Mary.  These pollinators include bumble bees, halictid bees, mason or orchard bees, mining bees, and sweat bees (E. Elle, pers. comm.). 

In the main photo above, Dr. Elle pointed out that the flower on the left has a small white mark on the lower petal.  This is a "bee kiss," which is a mark left by the tarsi of the bee upon pushing the lower petals out and down to open up the keel of the flower to get to the pollen within.  

So, like a small concert conductor, this unassuming plant orchestrates bees for pollination (and "bee kisses"), ants for defense, and at least this ecologist for photography.  Moreover, one source (the Native American Ethnobotanical Database) notes that Navajo and Kayenta Native Americans used the similar small-flowered blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia parviflora) to make a horse run fast, and Utes used the plant to treat sore flesh.   

Large-flowered blue-eyed Marys are found in western North America in shady sites of grassy areas or moss-covered rock outcrops.  According to Pojar and MacKinnon (1994), the name "Mary" likely refers to the mother of Jesus.  
  
  

Information:
     Elle, E., and R. Carney. 2003. Reproductive assurance varies with flower size in Collinsia parviflora (Scrophulariaceae). American Journal of Botany 90:888-896.
     Klinkenberg, Brian. (Editor) 2006. E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Plants of British Columbia [www.eflora.bc.ca]. Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. [Accessed: 4/16/2007 9:35:35 AM]
     Parachnowitsch, A. L., and E. Elle. 2005. Insect visitation to wildflowers in the endangered Garry oak, Quercus garryana, ecosystem of British Columbia. Canadian Field Naturalist 19(2):245-253.
     Pojar, J., and A. MacKinnon. 1994. Plants of coastal British Columbia including Washington, Oregon & Alaska. Lone Pine Publishing, Vancouver, B.C. 527 pp.

Acknowledgment:
     Many thanks to entomologist Dr. Elizabeth Elle of Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada, for information on pollinators, roles of ants, and sharing her research on this wonderful species.