Sustainability Issue #3 June 2010

This is printed from sustainability.formas.se, last updated 5/28/2010 4:44:54 PM

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New book: The pussy willow – the most important breakfast for survival

In pace with the advance of modern agriculture and silviculture, the number of old pussy willows has diminished in Sweden.

Adrena vaga, mining bee. Illustration: Martin Holmer.

Thousands of species that visit the pussy willow are now suffering. A new book praises the pussy willow and highlights its biological and economic values so that protection may increase, especially along forest margins. The book “Pussy willow – the most important breakfast for survival” has been written by entomologist Bengt Ehnström. It is published by Centre for Biodiversity CBM, SLU, in cooperation with World Wide Fund for Nature WWF and the Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature. Martin Holmer’s beautiful water colours decorate the book.

- No other Swedish tree species provides food for so many butterfly species and many other insect species. The flowers of the pussy willow provide the most important breakfast for survival for wild bees and bumble bees which begin to buzz around even as the winter still retains its hold on the landscape. At that time, nothing else apart from the pussy willow and the closely related willow species are in flower, says Torbjörn Ebenhard, director of CBM.

Responsible for this page: Birgitta Bruzelius

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Sustainability June 2010

Focus presentation

Construction below ground Several large infrastructure projects are at present in progress in Sweden. A substantial proportion of these are tunnels and other underground construction. At the ...

Focus articles

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The Interview

Gives industry knowledge for sustainable development Safe construction systems, environmentally sustainable foods and effective use of resources. These are some of the areas where SP, Technical Research Institute of Sw...

More articles

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In brief

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Results from research

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