Long lasting summer flowerings of Lythrum salicaria as honeybee-friendly flower spots in Mediterranean basin agricultural wetlands

tThe purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, is a species native to Eurasia. It is rustic, produces both pollenand nectar, and may be a helpful food source for bees in Mediterranean wetlands, helping them to over-come hot summer periods characterised by food paucity. In this research, we investigated the floweringof L. salicaria plants in Mediterranean agricultural wetlands, as well as pollinator diversity and abun-dance. L. salicaria has a long lasting flowering, with more than 640 open flowers/plant from mid-Julyto early September. 476 pollinators belonging to 3 orders, 7 families and 15 species of insects werestudied. Scanning electron microscopy showed that all species carried L. salicaria pollen on their bodyparts. Hymenoptera pollinators were the most abundant (427 specimens), followed by Diptera (26) andLepidoptera (23). Apoidea abundance reached a maximum in August and social bees largely dominate(94.38%). Apis mellifera was the most abundant species, followed by 5 bumblebees, including the endan-gered Bombus sylvarum. Honeybee visits on L. salicaria were higher in August over the rest of the summerand early autumn, while no differences were detected for bumblebees, Halictidae and Megachilidae.Overall, we support L. salicaria as a suitable species for bee-friendly flower spots in Mediterranean agri-cultural wetlands, as well as in close proximity of beehives. The latter use may facilitate the honeybeescollecting pollen for the colony, thereby ensuring robustness to overcome the winter season.