Invite pollinators into your garden
Pollinators come in all shapes and sizes. At least 200,000 invertebrate species act as pollinators. Bees, butterflies, and moths you probably know about, but flies, beetles, and yes, even mosquitoes are important pollinators. (While the female mosquito is extracting blood to produce eggs, the males are extracting nectar.) There are also an estimated 2,000 species of vertebrate pollinators. Hummingbirds and bats of course, but also surprises like doves, opossums, and lizards.
The relationships between flowering plants and their pollinators have been evolving since the early Cretaceous (140 million years ago). These are mutually beneficial relationships in which the animal gains food and nutrients, and the plant is assisted in reproduction. The plants produce nectar, a nutritious sugar-based substance that attracts the pollinator, and the pollen is picked up in the process of collecting the nectar. There are species that cheat of course, and have become adept at "nectar robbing," by taking nectar without passing the anthers of the flower where pollen is located.
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Pollinators come in all shapes and sizes. At least 200,000 invertebrate species act as pollinators. Bees, butterflies, and moths you probably know about, but flies, beetles, and yes, even mosquitoes are important pollinators. (While the female mosquito is extracting blood to produce eggs, the males are extracting nectar.) There are also an estimated 2,000 species of vertebrate pollinators. Hummingbirds and bats of course, but also surprises like doves, opossums, and lizards.The relationships between flowering plants and their pollinators have been evolving since the early Cretaceous (140 million years ago). These are mutually beneficial relationships in which the animal gains food and nutrients, and the plant is assisted in reproduction. The plants produce nectar, a nutritious sugar-based substance that attracts the pollinator, and the pollen is picked up in the process of collecting the nectar. There are species that cheat of course, and have become adept at "nectar robbing," by taking nectar without passing the anthers of the flower where pollen is located.
Each
fall I stop to watch bees messing around the blue Hasta flowers outside
my door. I haven't a clue about the species but I can tell there are
dozens, from big fuzzy yellow bubble bees to the tiny stingless ones.
It's fun to watch how some of them cheat and make a brief stop at the
base of the flower, where a tiny hole divulges their more direct route
to the nectar.
Flowers use color, shape, odor, and timing to appeal to pollinators. Plants such as the Maryland state flower, the black eyed Susan, provide easy access to nectar and attract a variety of pollinators. Others such as the trumpet vine have evolved to minimize the amount of pollen wasted by random visits to other species. With its bright red flowers and deep tubular blossoms it specializes in attracting hummingbirds which can reach the nectar with their long straight bill. If you encounter skunk cabbage in bloom in early spring along local creeks you might be put off by the skunk-like odor, but it is a siren call to beetles and flies.
Pollinators provide indispensable ecological and economic benefits. Several species do both. The Mexican long nose bats pollinate both the saguaro cactus, which provides homes and food for a multitude of desert species, and the agave, which supplies us with tequila for our margaritas. Globally, pollinators are important for the production of roughly 30 percent of the human diet, edible oils, fibers such as cotton and flax, alcoholic beverages, and medicines created from plants. In the US, more than 150 food crops like almonds, apples, blueberries, tomatoes, and squash rely on pollinators. A lot of our favorite imports, like chocolate and coffee do to.
Insects are the dominate pollinators world wide, and bees are considered the most important. There are over 400 species of bees in the US. With a few exceptions the US bees are native. But despite this, when people hear "bee" most think of the honeybee. Honeybees were brought here from Europe in the seventeenth century as a crop pollinator and they have become the single most economically important pollinator in the US. One estimate of the yearly agricultural services provided by pollinators is $14.6 billion. Pollination services provided by wild bees are also very important and have been estimated at $3 billion annually. Recently honeybee bees have been facing serious declines from what is being called Colony Collapse Disorder (which results in bees abandoning their hives). There has been some research and lots of speculation but we still don't know why this is happening.
There have been a few attempts to estimate the monetary value of pollinators in agriculture, but it is much harder to put a value on their essential role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. Fortunately, many of us don't need dollars signs to understand this
MD, VA, and DC are wonderful places to see pollinators in action. Just walk around the neighborhood and look for butterflies, bees, moths, and flies on the flowers of familiar trees such as black cherry, dogwood, and magnolia. Peek in neighborhood yards to observe azaleas, milkweed, and those beautiful little violets that pop up seemingly out of nowhere. In vegetable gardens, watch bees and other insects provide free gardening services as they pollinate squash, melons, tomatoes, and beans. Take a stroll along Sligo or Rock Creek parks and watch what happens when spring beauty, jack-in-the-pulpit, and other native plants are in bloom. But, in truth, you don't need to know the names of any of these plants or their pollinators to just enjoy the show.
Researchers are documenting a serious decline in native pollinators and recently the National Research Council put out a report, Status of Pollinators in North America, which assesses these losses. The report identifies the main causes as habitat loss, pesticide use, and diseases.
There are some encouraging responses such as the creation of new habitats in some unlikely places: the US Golf Association's Wildlinks Program is creating wildlife habitat along golf courses; the Farm Bill provides incentives for farmers to build permanent vegetative buffers next to agricultural fields; and PEPCO has been preserving open sunny pollinator friendly habitats along its transmission line corridors such as east of New Hampshire Avenue in lower Sligo Creek Park.
How can we help pollinators? We can support organizations that have programs to protect pollinators of course. In our own yards and communities we can provide habitats for pollinators and reduce the amount of pesticides we use.
But the first step is awareness. This is what Pollinator Week was about - to celebrate and teach others about the importance and of these fascinating and essential creatures. But think of pollinator week as just a teaser. We still have the rest of summer and into the fall to watch them at work.
Here are a few of the many sites with information about pollinators:
• The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign: www.nappc.org
• The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation: www.xerces.org
• Ecological Society of America's Communicating Ecosystem Services Pollination Toolkit: esa.org/ecoservices
• Friends of Sligo Creek: www.fosc.org/Pollinators.htm
Flowers use color, shape, odor, and timing to appeal to pollinators. Plants such as the Maryland state flower, the black eyed Susan, provide easy access to nectar and attract a variety of pollinators. Others such as the trumpet vine have evolved to minimize the amount of pollen wasted by random visits to other species. With its bright red flowers and deep tubular blossoms it specializes in attracting hummingbirds which can reach the nectar with their long straight bill. If you encounter skunk cabbage in bloom in early spring along local creeks you might be put off by the skunk-like odor, but it is a siren call to beetles and flies.
Pollinators provide indispensable ecological and economic benefits. Several species do both. The Mexican long nose bats pollinate both the saguaro cactus, which provides homes and food for a multitude of desert species, and the agave, which supplies us with tequila for our margaritas. Globally, pollinators are important for the production of roughly 30 percent of the human diet, edible oils, fibers such as cotton and flax, alcoholic beverages, and medicines created from plants. In the US, more than 150 food crops like almonds, apples, blueberries, tomatoes, and squash rely on pollinators. A lot of our favorite imports, like chocolate and coffee do to.
Insects are the dominate pollinators world wide, and bees are considered the most important. There are over 400 species of bees in the US. With a few exceptions the US bees are native. But despite this, when people hear "bee" most think of the honeybee. Honeybees were brought here from Europe in the seventeenth century as a crop pollinator and they have become the single most economically important pollinator in the US. One estimate of the yearly agricultural services provided by pollinators is $14.6 billion. Pollination services provided by wild bees are also very important and have been estimated at $3 billion annually. Recently honeybee bees have been facing serious declines from what is being called Colony Collapse Disorder (which results in bees abandoning their hives). There has been some research and lots of speculation but we still don't know why this is happening.
There have been a few attempts to estimate the monetary value of pollinators in agriculture, but it is much harder to put a value on their essential role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. Fortunately, many of us don't need dollars signs to understand this
MD, VA, and DC are wonderful places to see pollinators in action. Just walk around the neighborhood and look for butterflies, bees, moths, and flies on the flowers of familiar trees such as black cherry, dogwood, and magnolia. Peek in neighborhood yards to observe azaleas, milkweed, and those beautiful little violets that pop up seemingly out of nowhere. In vegetable gardens, watch bees and other insects provide free gardening services as they pollinate squash, melons, tomatoes, and beans. Take a stroll along Sligo or Rock Creek parks and watch what happens when spring beauty, jack-in-the-pulpit, and other native plants are in bloom. But, in truth, you don't need to know the names of any of these plants or their pollinators to just enjoy the show.
Researchers are documenting a serious decline in native pollinators and recently the National Research Council put out a report, Status of Pollinators in North America, which assesses these losses. The report identifies the main causes as habitat loss, pesticide use, and diseases.
There are some encouraging responses such as the creation of new habitats in some unlikely places: the US Golf Association's Wildlinks Program is creating wildlife habitat along golf courses; the Farm Bill provides incentives for farmers to build permanent vegetative buffers next to agricultural fields; and PEPCO has been preserving open sunny pollinator friendly habitats along its transmission line corridors such as east of New Hampshire Avenue in lower Sligo Creek Park.
How can we help pollinators? We can support organizations that have programs to protect pollinators of course. In our own yards and communities we can provide habitats for pollinators and reduce the amount of pesticides we use.
But the first step is awareness. This is what Pollinator Week was about - to celebrate and teach others about the importance and of these fascinating and essential creatures. But think of pollinator week as just a teaser. We still have the rest of summer and into the fall to watch them at work.
Here are a few of the many sites with information about pollinators:
• The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign: www.nappc.org
• The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation: www.xerces.org
• Ecological Society of America's Communicating Ecosystem Services Pollination Toolkit: esa.org/ecoservices
• Friends of Sligo Creek: www.fosc.org/Pollinators.htm
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