Floral enhancement of turfgrass lawns benefits wild bees and honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Abstract The turfgrass lawn is a common feature of urban and suburban communities, often accounting for the largest green spaces by area in these landscapes. Flowering species within lawns have potential to serve as source forage bee pollinators areas. We intentionally introduced low-growing flowers promote diversity reduce inputs, while maintaining traditional aesthetics recreational uses associated with lawns. compared communities on naturally-occurring blooms Trifolium repens florally-enhanced that contained Prunella vulgaris ssp. lanceolata Thymus serpyllum addition T. . provided both wild Apis mellifera , A. being most 56 bees observed found supported more diverse than just Furthermore, were significantly different from containing based presence-absence data (Jaccard’s dissimilarity index). Our research indicates colonies can be allowing bloom lawns, land managers support introducing