As spring hurtles towards summer, the palette of colors in natural areas changes by the week.
Flowering trees, shrubs and wildflowers provide a Technicolor display for anyone willing to spend the time to take it in.
The hues cover the spectrum and some blooms come with pleasant perfumes to offer the viewer a distraction from contemporary life. The flowers are also a lure to the native pollinators.
European Honeybees and, to a slightly lesser degree, bumblebees are widely known for their pollination work, both in nature and commercial agriculture. Still, there are legions of lesser-known pollinators which work unseen and are rarely acknowledged for their efforts.
All these lesser-known pollinators make contributions to the cycle of life which begins with a germination or emergence from a winter nap by the area’s plant life. The symbiotic relationship between the plants and insects is a win-win situation for all involved.
One of the many lesser-known pollinators which plunder local flowers for nectar and pollen, this insect and others like it spread the genetic diversity between plant species over the region.
Nectar is a dietary staple for butterflies. During their adult phase, they consume only liquids through a straw-like structure curled on the front of their head.
Butterflies receive a concentration of sugars and other nutrients from the sweet nectars in flowers. Their strenuous, but short lives require the intense energy for the showy aerial gymnastics.
Many butterflies are migratory, such as the widely known Monarch which passes through various locales in north Florida on their way to Mexico. A successful migration is timed to take advantage of nectar laden blooms before setting out on their international flight.
Plants benefit from the feeding frenzy because the butterflies carry pollen from bloom to bloom on their bodies. While not moving as much pollen per insect as honeybees, butterflies move pollen over much greater distances.
This wide geographic dispersal of pollen improves the genetic strength of many plants. The variability assures the continuation of the species.
Local wasps are marginally effective pollinators with an unpleasant reputation. The droning buzz and the wasp profile near a bloom is a sting avoidance warning.
Wasps, however, provide a necessary, if often unrecognized, service which far outweighs their foul temperament. Many wasp larvae begin life as parasites on a variety of pest insect species.
When the wasps reach maturity, they will visit flowers for the nectar. As with butterflies it serves as an energy source.
Pollen is caught on the body hairs of the wasp and may be deposited on other blooms as it lazily moves from bloom-to-bloom. Wasps tend to be territorial so pollen is not widely dispersed.
Flies are another group of accidental pollinators. These sometimes-pests have no teeth, so they must subsist on a liquid diet and flower nectar is quite attractive.
Their days are spent moving among various food sources, dropping pollen haphazardly as they go. Individually the transfer of pollen is negligible, but collectively their local efforts add up to a small but respectable percentage.
Native ants also help with pollination while scavenging for an easy meal. They will trek in single file along branches searching blooms in their quest for aphids to “milk”.
Scouts for the ant nest search bloom to bloom, scattering pollen as they go. As with flies, their individual effect is infinitesimal, but there are millions, if not billions, of ants and other insects depending on nectar and pollen producing blooms for their survival
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