Earlier this summer, someone on Facebook mentioned the Pollinator Partnership website, and I finally got around to taking a look at it. The first thing I looked at was the interactive section on planting guides. I clicked on my home state of Georgia, expecting to get nothing more than a list of native plants – but what a surprise! Instead, I got an instant download of a delightful and very readable report, in a PDF format.
I learned so much about the flora, fauna, and geography of the region I live in, which the Pollinator Partnership calls Southeastern Mixed Forest. It’s made up of 193,000 square miles that extend across 11 different states, and is dominated by forests of broadleaf deciduous and evergreen needle leaf trees.
I also enjoyed reading an entertaining and informative overview about the role of pollinators, why we should care about them, and how we can help them. Here’s an excerpt:
Pollinators travel through the landscape without regard to property ownership or state boundaries. Each of us can have a positive impact by providing the essential habitat requirements for pollinators including food, water, shelter, and enough space to allow pollinators to raise their young.
The pollinators in my region include bees, butterflies, moths, flies, bats, birds, beetles, and the wind. That last one is something you don’t think about much! And the graphic that I downloaded to post here (see above) shows that around the world, pollinators include flying squirrels, hummingbirds, lizards, moles, and even lemurs. I just had to google “lemurs and pollination” to see what that’s all about, and I found out that on the island of Madagascar, lemurs pollinate a type of palm tree.
The report went on to describe how flowers can differ greatly in shape, color, and fragrance:
These floral characteristics can be useful to predict the type of pollination method or animal that is most effective for that group of plants. This association between floral characteristics and pollination method is called a pollination syndrome.
A chart of the “pollination syndromes” then describes which flower characteristics are most attractive to different types of pollinators. For example, I think it’s common knowledge that red flowers attract hummingbirds. But I had no idea that bats are attracted to dull white, greenish, or purple flowers with a musty odor that gets stronger at night. And flies don’t care much about color at all, but are attracted to a putrid scent (see the post I wrote, as a guest blogger, about corpse flower!) Flowers that don’t produce nectar can’t attract pollinators, so they may rely on the wind to carry their pollen grains to other plants nearby or far away. The pollen grains of these plants tend to be “abundant, small, smooth, and not sticky” – it makes sense, doesn’t it?
Finally, the report for my region included landscape planting tips that can help out pollinators by providing them with food, water, or shelter. The tips are clearly written and for the most part are practical and within the means of the average homeowner or gardener. And, even if you only make one or two small changes on your property, it can make a huge difference, because:
Minor changes by many individuals can positively impact the pollinator populations in your area. The scale of your plantings will vary but it is important to remember that you are trying to provide connectivity to the landscape adjacent to your property. Don’t just look within your property boundaries. If your neighbor’s property provides an essential element, such as water, which can be utilized by pollinators visiting your land, you may be able to devote more space to habitat elements that are missing nearby.
Take a look at the Pollinator Partnership website, and if you learn something interesting about pollinators in the region you live in, please leave a comment below.
Fascinating! Thanks for the link.