Talk:Tilia tomentosa

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Aren't all Tilia called "Lindens" in the US?--Wetman 02:07, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Sugars and Toxicity Dispute

There seems to be a dispute about whether the linden flowers are mildly toxic to bees other than honeybees. Is this backed up by the science or not? The Oregon Dept. of Agriculture seems to still be publishing the folk wisdom that lindens are toxic. I found references to a paper by Pawlikowski that seems to state with authority the mannose mechanism. Pawlikowski cites papers from 1960, 1977, and 1993 to back his assertion that mannose is the mechanism; his paper goes on to study intoxicated bees' behavior. By contrast, Illies and Wehrnen cite Baal (1993) who fed bees different kinds of nectar and seemingly proved the mannose mechanism incorrect. Behnke's textbook in 1996 cites Baal and others and seems to put the issue to bed. Is this a big feud in the study of pollinators? Can we make a determination of what the current state of science is? Jurph (talk) 02:34, 6 January 2017 (UTC)

I'm afraid I can't offer any useful input on the scientific question, but I am in favor of the text being amended to remove the contradiction between "...a good street tree in urban areas, apart from the problems it causes to bees..." and "A widespread belief is that the nectar of this species...can be toxic to some bees. This is incorrect..." Perhaps until the scientific debate is resolved, the two conflicting claims can simply be removed, or they could be isolated to one statement that sums up the controversy? Bricology (talk) 18:26, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

References