Category: Pollinators | Accent on Natural Landscaping

Pollinators and our Food

April 19, 2019

I got an e-mail about a naysayer recently who was doubting my reference to foods requiring pollination. So I thought you might be interested in my response.

1. Potatoes don’t require pollinators — if you put “do potatoes require buzz pollination” into Google search, you’ll come up with all kinds of references to the fact potatoes require buzz pollination. I’ll just list the first here https://blog.therainforestsite.greatergood.com/cs-buzz-pollination/

Pollen is carried away from this Sneezeweed (*Helenium autumnale*) in this native bumblebee’s pollen sac. Photo by Robert Carlson

2. Corn, rice and wheat do not need pollinators — corn, rice and wheat are either wind-pollinated or self-pollinated or both. So, no, they don’t need to be pollinated by insects. However, corn and soybeans in particular, offer pollen used by pollinators. Honey bees use the pollen for their young, and while collecting it, also help loosen the pollen which drifts away and lands on the female flowers. This undoubtedly improves corn, rice and wheat pollination success. See https://www.beeculture.com/catch-buzz-kind-insect-pollinators-commonly-found-corn-soybean-fields/ and https://dghaskell.com/2011/07/30/bees-pollinating-corn/

Although I don’t know if I’ve ever stated this in my blog, the following is a piece of information I use frequently when I’m debating naysayers.

3. One out of three bites of food we eat depends upon pollinators — here again just do a Google search. This time for “1 in 3 bites of food requires pollination” and you’ll find many references, the first of which is https://pollinator.org/pollinators. “Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce.”

Foods Pollinated by Insects

Lastly, here’s a link listing all the foods pollinated by insects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

Late Monarch Arrivals in Texas may mean Loss of Population Growth

April 17, 2019

Last month, Chip Taylor, Founder and Director of Monarch Watch, responded to a question related to the potential for monarch migration routes being shut down between Mexico and Texas because of the cold weather, and what this would mean for monarch population growth. The writer understood monarchs arriving early in Texas might not find nectar sources or milkweed on which to lay eggs, which could result in loss of population growth. But why would late arriving monarchs result in similar losses?

Typically this delayed arrival results in lower population numbers because the overwintering monarchs arriving late in Texas means, generationally, there may not be enough time egg to egg to increase population growth before starting the cycle all over again.

Late Arrivals

Monarch butterfly depositing an egg on the host milkweed plant. Photo by Candi Sarikonda

Chips response was “late arrivals mean late egg laying that produces a cohort of new adults 30+ days later that is also late relative to those that arrived earlier and matured their offspring earlier. The net effect for the population is to send a first generation north with a higher mean age to first reproduction than if all eggs were laid earlier. This later first generation cohort is likely to arrive later in the North as well as producing more late effects. The overall outcome could be a smaller fall population under some conditions.

Population growth is all about age to first reproduction – sometimes characterized as generation length. In terms of insects, I think of egg to egg intervals. I want them to be as short as possible if I want a population to grow. Degree days are one way to capture these population characteristics but degree days are not as good as direct observation for a number of reasons.

Importance of First Sightings Data

The dynamics of the growth of the population last year – when compared to all previous years – caused me to realize that the temporal and spatial distribution of eggs as well as the quantity laid by returning females – were important determinants of monarch population growth.

I’m slow to figure things out. It took me 26 years and lots and lots of First Sightings Data posted to Journey North to figure that out.

Thanks to Journey North and all those citizens who post their observations to that site.”

Note: The cold temperatures did abate last month, and monarchs had favorable conditions along both pathways out of Mexico.

Plant Pollination Strategies

April 15, 2019

The blossom of the Devil’s Claw (*Proboscidea parviflora*) looks pretty harmless, but wait until the plant reproduces and springs it seeds. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

In an earlier post, I spoke about pollination syndromes. In this post I want to speak about pollination strategies. Pollination occurs through two means: 1) abiotic meaning without the involvement of organisms or 2) biotic meaning with the involvement of organisms. About 80 percent of all pollination is abiotic, while the remaining is primarily by wind with the assist of some water.

The US Forest Service has explained the difference between the various types of pollination transferrance as plant pollination strategies.

The Ghosts of Evolution

Getting a Devil’s Claw (*Proboscidea parviflora*) seed pod wrapped around one’s ankle or that of an animal can be a funny, but also painful experience. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

If you want to read a delightful book about the mysteries of evolution, try The Ghosts of Evolution — Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological anachronisms by Connie Barlow. It won’t keep you “rolling in the aisles” for the entire book, but it’s darn close.

Note: If you’ve ever gotten a Devil’s Claw (Proboscidea parviflora) caught around your ankle, you’ll want to read this book, pg 150+.

Pollinator Syndromes

April 10, 2019

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Purple Coneflower (*Echinacea purpurea*). Native coneflowers make the perfect landing platform for pollinators.

Through evolution, plants and pollinators have adapted physical characteristics which allow them to interact successfully. These characteristics are often referred to as syndromes. “The flower type, shape, color, odor, nectar and structure vary by the type of pollinator that visits them.” Hence the reference to pollination syndromes. This means these characteristics can be used to “predict the type of pollinator that will aid the flower in successful reproduction.” (USFS)

Benefits of Predicting Pollinators

About 80 percent of all plant pollination is by organisms (wildlife). By knowing which syndromes attract which pollinators, farmers, crop growers and gardeners can plan the best combination of plants to make the most of the ecosystem services pollinators provide. Maximizing these ecosystem services allows

the plant to benefit from the intermixing of pollen from one plant to another to enable successful reproduction, and
the pollinator to benefit from the food resources it gathers as it travels from one plant to another to enable maximum nutrition.

Table of Pollinator Syndromes

The US Forest Service has put together a table of pollinator syndromes to help identify the potential plants with which pollinators may associate. This helpful chart will assist you in learning which flower traits attract different types of pollinators. See also Pollinator Syndromes by Pollinator Partnership.