Vaccinium corymbosum, blueberry flower, Howard County, MD

The not so simple blueberry...this is Vaccinium corymbosum. First we know it is not so simple simply because there are so many bee species that only feed Vaccinium pollen to their babies. Why? There are Andrenas, Melittas, Habropodas, Osmias, and probably some others that escape me. I think it is because blueberry bushes are stable over decades if not centuries...they are dependable bloomers and they have shapes and poriferous stamens that require some special tactics to access. Honey bees....not so in sync or as efficient as the natives...so thank a native bee at breakfast for the blue in your milky life. Picture and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.