Native Pollinators in Your Garden BY TARYN EVANS Giant Swallowtail butterfly on native Tropical Red Sage (Salvia coccinea). Photo by the author. MORE PEOPLE THAN EVER BEFORE ARE AWARE OF AND CONCERNED FOR OUR NATIVE POLLINATORS. MORE PEOPLE WANT TO DO WHAT THEY CAN TO SUPPORT THEM IN THEIR OWN GARDENS. IF YOU ARE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE, WHERE DO YOU BEGIN? The first step to helping our native pollinators is to transition from thinking of your landscape as just a canvas to paint a pretty picture using plants as your paints, to thinking of it as a habitat, where the plants provide the services needed by the pollinators you hope to attract. It’s possible to have both a beautiful landscape and a sustainable one that provides pollinators the basic needs of food, water and shelter. Great habitat design will address the needs of specific pollinators, including their nest sites, will provide diversity in plant species, considering bloom times so that something is flowering nearly year round, and will mimic as best it can the natural areas found nearby. The best pollinator gardens use no pesticides and no herbicides. As you create your habitat for pollinators, you will quickly discover that just as “no man is an island,” no pollinating insect is an island. The relationship between native plants and their pollinators is the foundation of a food web, upon which many species depend, including humans. Any habitat attractive to pollinators will eventually be one that attracts all kinds of wildlife. FLORIDA’S POLLINATORS Which pollinators your garden habitat attracts will vary depending on the native plants you choose to plant and, in the case of some pollinators, availability of appropriate nest sites or shelter. Although fruit bats are pollinators in some parts of the world, here in Florida, bats do not pollinate. But there are plenty of other creatures to take up this important job. Bees are Mother Nature’s super-pollinators, having evolved to most efficiently perform this task. Unlike most other insects, they visit flowers not only to feed themselves, but to carry pollen away to a nest site to feed their young. In doing so, pollen is readily moved from flower to flower. Still other insects such as butterflies, moths, flies, wasps, and beetles act as pollinators. Some are very important to the plants with which they co-evolved. For example, beetles rather than bees for Magnolia trees. Hummingbirds pollinate the plants they use for nectar. Let’s look more closely at some of the pollinators you could see in your own pollinator garden. BOB PETERSON About Pollination (Plant Sex!) In very simple terms ... Flowers contain the reproductive parts of plants. Pollen is a flower’s male sperm. Pollen must reach the female reproductive parts so that “eggs” can be fertilized and develop into seeds and, ultimately, the next generation of plants. Pollination is the process by which pollen moves to the female reproductive parts. A few flowers can do it themselves. But most need help: wind, water or the direct actions of creatures such as ants, bats, bees, beetles, birds, butterflies, moths or wasps. When creatures take pollen to a flower, they are acting as pollinators. Why do pollinators interact with flowers? Generally, for food. Flowers provide energy-rich nectar and/or protein-rich pollen. Pollinators carry pollen from one flower to another in the course of their daily foraging routine. Insects do most of the work. Pollination is vitally important for plants and people. Without plants or the animals that eat plants, humans would lose food, oxygen and clean water. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 4 GUIDE FOR REAL FLORIDA GARDENERS FALL 2016-2017 FANN / Florida Association of Native Nurseries
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