Bumblebee on Joe-Pye weed
Bombus impatiens
Bumblebee · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 24 August 2025
A Common Eastern Bumblebee hanging almost upside down off a Joe-Pye weed cluster in the August border, working it from below. It is the default bumblebee of the city, nesting in the ground across the eastern United States, and Joe-Pye weed in August is one of its last big flowers.
Joe-Pye weed flowers are shallow and open enough that a bumblebee doesn't need to force its way in the way it would with a tubular flower. The yellow thorax and a single yellow band at the top of an otherwise black abdomen are the marks.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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