Common carder bee
Bombus pascuorum
Bee
The common carder bee is a ginger-brown, long-tongued bumblebee and one of the most abundant bumblebees across Europe and temperate Asia. Its long tongue suits deep-corolla flowers, and it shows a marked preference for the mint family (Lamiaceae - including lavender, sage, and dead-nettles) and the pea family (Fabaceae) for nectar and pollen. Unlike many bumblebees, it usually nests at or near the ground surface, combing - "carding" - moss and dry grass into a fibrous dome, though it also uses old mouse burrows and other cavities. It is one of the longest-season bumblebees, with workers active from spring into autumn, making it a key late-season pollinator in gardens and flowery grassland.
Plan for this species
Location-fit plant set for Chicago, IL: host and specialist plants first, then nectar, fruit, seed, foliage, and shelter plants that still fit the current and mid-century climate read.
0 essential relationships / 6 supporting plants
Host/specialist links: 0
Forage/pollination links: 6
Shelter links: 0
Relationship roles: 2
Yellow flag iris
Supporting / Plants this species pollinates
Bombus pascuorum is recorded as the commonest flower visitor to Iris pseudacorus in European surveys, and it is long-tongued enough to reach the nectar at the base of the perianth tube rather than robbing it. Read this as a native-range relationship: in Britain and across Europe this is an ordinary and legitimate bumblebee forage plant, and none of the invasion story applies there.
English lavender
Supporting / Nectar plants
Lavender is a documented forage plant; long-tongued carder bees work the flower spikes heavily.
Garden salvia
Supporting / Nectar plants
Hyssop
Supporting / Nectar plants
Siberian iris
Supporting / Nectar plants
Bombus pascuorum is the bumblebee most consistently found in damp rough grassland, fen meadow and streamside vegetation across Europe, which is the habitat description for wild Iris sibirica almost word for word. Recorded as a habitat-level plausible association rather than a feeding record.
Wall germander
Supporting / Nectar plants
Plants in the catalog
Plants this species pollinates · 1
Bombus pascuorum is recorded as the commonest flower visitor to Iris pseudacorus in European surveys, and it is long-tongued enough to reach the nectar at the base of the perianth tube rather than robbing it. Read this as a native-range relationship: in Britain and across Europe this is an ordinary and legitimate bumblebee forage plant, and none of the invasion story applies there.
Nectar plants · 7
Lavender is a documented forage plant; long-tongued carder bees work the flower spikes heavily.
Bombus pascuorum is the bumblebee most consistently found in damp rough grassland, fen meadow and streamside vegetation across Europe, which is the habitat description for wild Iris sibirica almost word for word. Recorded as a habitat-level plausible association rather than a feeding record.
Range
Found across most of Europe from northern Iberia and the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and eastward through temperate Asia; expanding northward in Britain, and largely absent from the high Arctic, the far south of the Balkans, southern Italy, and southern Iberia.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
Use this citation for the Plotwright wildlife record. Use the source cards below to explore the references that informed its taxonomy, range, conservation, host plants, foraging, and habitat.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/wildlife/common-carder-bee
Sources used for this record
This record is compiled from the sources below.
Bombus pascuorum - BWARS species account
British distribution, surface-carding nest habit, forage records (Fabaceae and Scrophulariaceae), and garden value as a long-season bumblebee.
Bombus pascuorum - Wikipedia
Taxonomy, Palearctic range, long-tongued Lamiaceae/Fabaceae foraging, and surface-nesting biology.
Bumblebee foraging preferences (PLOS One)
Long-tongued bumblebee foraging on deep-corolla flowers, supporting the Lamiaceae preference.
GBIF: Bombus pascuorum
GBIF matches Bombus pascuorum exactly as an accepted species at usageKey 1340405.
iNaturalist: Bombus pascuorum
iNaturalist taxon 55637 matches Bombus pascuorum exactly at species rank, the common carder bumble bee.