I was keen to see Solanum flowers after reading Tamara Bonnemaison's comments about sonication (buzz pollination) in Solanum pyracanthos - Botany Photo of the Day. Douglas Justice mentioned it also in his July 2015 in the Garden | UBC Botanical Garden blog article. Well, here is Solanum tuberosum 'Banana Fingerling' potato, with a bumble bee that doesn't seem to have figured it out. Now that I think of it, I don't remember hearing any humming. I think this guy must be the yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, which has become more popular around here since 2000. All of the bumble bees I saw yesterday were this one, and I saw several recently along the West End seawall at English Bay. I didn't think I'd seen them before, which led me to seek out a name for him (it's the first bee I've ever thought to want to know the name of), but I found one in a photo I posted two years ago. Here is Solanum melongena 'Traviata', eggplant. And a tomato, Solanum lycopersicum. It has a tag near it that says "T. Hobbs". I can't find any tomato cultivar with Hobbs in the name, and I don't know if the T is for tomato or Thomas. Maybe UBCBG developed it? Or Thomas Hobbs did?
