The bees may have been tipsy, but they were highly efficient. How can I be sure? Today the Monarda patch looks scraggly and sad. Each inflorescence is almost bald, with only a few withered and fading flowers forming a crown around the perimeter. But it's all good. When flowers fall away it's a clear indication that the hard-working dumbledores (that's Old English for bumblebee) did their work of pollination. The plant can now direct its energy toward making seeds.

For some reason, scientists have never bothered to give this bee a common name. So we'll call her the golden-haired booming bee. A proud name for a lovely creature.

For comparison, this is the much smaller Bombus bimaculatum—the two-spotted bumblebee. It's pollinating my prairie blazing star (Liatris). I hope you can see the shining flecks of orange-gold pollen scattered across the bee's lower abdomen.