Pollinators
Plants and animals have a symbiotic relationship. A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. In return, the animal gets nutrition, usually in the form of nectar. The plant can then fertilize the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Many animals are pollinators, including bats, hummingbirds, monkeys, rodents, possums, and, of course, insects.
Bees are the most well known pollinators. Here in North America, there are over 4,000 species of native bees. You can find them anywhere flowers bloom. The honey bee was brought from Europe by settlers to North America, and is a great and amazing pollinator for many flowering plants. But the native bees do a lot of pollination themselves. In fact, a honey bee can’t pollinate a tomato, but a native bee can.
Many other insects pollinate too. Butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, and beetles all do their part. What is really amazing is how plants have evolved to attract and take full advantage of their pollinators. Some plants have one particular animal as its pollinator, and have adapted special scents, shapes, colors, patterns, and pollen delivery systems geared toward that one particular animal. For example, a very sweet scent and tubular shaped flower may attract a hummingbird, while the Sumatran corpse flower, 20 feet tall and stretching 16 feet across, smells like a dead rotting body and attracts flies. Some plants employ trickery.
Bucket orchid plants attract bees with alluring fragrances. The bees may slip and fall into the bucket shaped flowers, where they must crawl out, collecting pollen on the way.
Mirror orchids use their female wasp-shaped flowers to attract male wasps.
Some species of orchids mimic aphid alarm pheromones to attract flies that feed on aphids.
You and I can help support pollinators by planting trees and shrubs they need. Pawpaw, Eastern redbud, Green hawthorn, Piedmont azalea, Oakleaf hydrangea and Sparkleberry are just some of the trees and shrubs that provide nutrients for our native pollinators.
