Pollinator – Greenburgh Nature Center

You may already know that monarch butterflies need milkweed. But did you know that milkweed does not need monarchs? Milkweed is not pollinated by monarch butterflies!

Monarchs have long skinny legs, and even longer skinny tongues. They have learned, over eons of co-evolution with milkweed, to avoid the dangerous sticky sap of milkweed by carefully alighting on the sides of the flowers and lowering their long “tongues” (proboscises) into the flower to reach the sweet nectar.

**Monarch sips nectar while perching on the sides of milkweed flowers**

As they drink, monarchs are careful to not put their feet down inside the flowers where they might get stuck. Unfortunately for the milkweed, this means that monarchs don’t pick up milkweed pollen! The pollen is held in specialized structures inside the upper portion of the flower called “pollinia.” For pollination to occur, pollen from the pollinia has to reach the flower’s stigma, deeper inside the flower. Without successful pollination, no seeds develop, and milkweed does not reproduce.

**Microscopic view of milkweed flower — pollen is held on the two yellow leaf-like parts on the right, called “pollinia”**
Graphic: Rick Darke

So, if not monarchs, who pollinates milkweed? It’s not any of the other butterfly species that also visit milkweed flowers without picking up pollen. Honeybees can’t do it. They are native to Europe where milkweed isn’t native, and they are too small to be strong fliers. If they go deep enough into milkweed blossoms to reach the pollen, they can be trapped, which is not good for either the bee or the milkweed.

Milkweed needs a strong flier, with stout hairy legs that will go down into the flower, catch the sticky pollinia, and carry pollen from one flower to the next. Luckily, nature has provided just the right insect for the job: carpenter bees!

**Carpenter bee with its feet in milkweed blossoms**
Photo: Pixabay

Carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.) are the most important pollinators of milkweed. Their legs are heavy and hairy, so they can step right into the flower and come out covered with sticky pollinia. They are strong fliers, so they do not get trapped, and they can carry the excess baggage. As the carpenter bee goes from flower to flower, pollen is dispersed, flowers are pollinated, seeds form, and milkweed is reproduced.

**Pollinia, shaped like little yellow leaves, cling to the hairy legs of the bee**
Photo: Polinizador’s Blog

Recently, friends who were developing a new pollinator garden for a historic property commented on the trouble they were having with carpenter bees burrowing into the eaves of the historic building. They said that exterminators had tried several applications of pesticide over the years, but the bees were nesting once again in the wooden structure.

Only later, when we learned of the connection between carpenter bees and milkweed, did we realize the contradiction! If we plant milkweed for monarchs in a pollinator garden, but then try to kill the carpenter bees nesting in the eaves of the house, we are pulling a thread in the complex web of life that can unravel the whole thing! If we kill carpenter bees, milkweed disappears. If milkweed disappears, so do monarchs.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
John Muir, Naturalist

So, what to do about carpenter bees? Well, they prefer to move into holes or cracks that are already established. They apparently don’t like the smell of citrus, and they don’t care for white paint. So, instead of pesticide, try filling existing holes and cracks or replacing weak structures. Apply citrus oil, or maybe re-paint. But killing them? They are definitely hitched to everything else in the universe.

**Carpenter bees are very efficient pollinators of many other flowers as well**

So, it is complicated. Nature is complicated. The more we learn, the better we understand the profound relationships among living things that co-evolved over millennia.

But that doesn’t mean it is difficult to do the right thing. If we simply start with the maxim “do no harm,” we can make better choices. Before we kill a “pest,” let’s understand that creature’s role in the world. Let’s avoid pesticide, apply fewer chemicals, plant native plants, plant more plants, allow a little mess for habitat, live and let live.

For more information on the complex relationship between milkweed and the insect world, see the post “ Marvelous Milkweed-Not Just for Monarchs!” linked here.

THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS @CATHYLUDDEN.

This week on around the grounds, we learn about the ecological advantages of pollinator pathways. Additionally, get some useful home gardening tips that help our pollinator pals!

Have you heard all the “buzz” about pollinator gardens? It seems that community groups everywhere are planning, planting, or maintaining pollinator gardens. Schools, parks, churches, and homeowners are adding pollinator-friendly native plants to landscapes all around us. Are you involved?

The original “Pollinator Pathway” idea was to create linked gardens through urban and suburban areas so that pollinators could travel, finding what they need to survive along the way.

The concept has grown wildly and Pollinator Pathway organizations are popping up everywhere, including locally in Irvington, Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Bedford, Elmsford, and many others.

Physically connecting pollinator gardens into an actual pathway is less important than having lots of them everywhere. From big meadows to front lawn patches to container gardens on balconies, every blooming native plant helps pollinators.

**August Brosnahan and friends started a pollinator garden along the Old Croton Aqueduct**

**Friends of Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park planted native plants for pollinators**
*Photo: Don Vitagliano*

Driving this movement is recent documentation of a stunning decline in insect populations, especially pollinators. Since many of our food crops depend on insect pollination, this is a huge wake-up call for all of us. Insecticides, agricultural techniques, and loss of habitat all contribute to crashing insect populations. And since most birds depend upon insects to feed their young, bird populations also are declining rapidly.

**The New York Times reports on the “Insect Apocalypse”**

Unlike many other global problems, we can actually do something about this crisis — right in our own yards. Pollinator gardens are a powerful force for good. And the bonus? They are gorgeous! Every time we convert a patch of lawn, or bare dirt, or a weed-infested spot to a pollinator garden, we not only provide survival essentials for birds, bees, and butterflies, we brighten our neighborhoods with color and life.

**The pollinator garden at Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park**
*Photo: Nancy Delmerico*

**This pollinator garden replaced a lawn in Hastings**
*Photo: Myriam Beck*

So, what makes a garden a pollinator garden? Short answer: native flowering plants. The two main classes of pollinators we are trying to save are butterflies and bees, especially native bees. Bees need flower nectar and pollen. Butterflies need nectar and host plants for their caterpillars to eat. Pollinator gardens should provide all 3 essentials: nectar, pollen, and host plants.

**Native bumblebees need pollen from native plants**
*Photo: Travis Brady*

The reason we keep emphasizing native plants is because most of these insects are specialists — they depend upon one or two specific species of plants for survival. For example, there are over 20 species of native bees that can only eat the pollen of Goldenrod! And just as Monarch caterpillars can only eat the leaves of Milkweed, other butterflies’ caterpillars are also completely dependent upon specific plant species – their “host”plants.

**Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar on its host plant, Zizia**

**Adult Black Swallowtail on Zizia at the Nature Center**

Pollinator gardens do best in sunny spots. Butterflies and bees prefer sunshine and are more active in sunny areas. Any place that lawn grass grows is a good spot for a pollinator garden.

The best plants for pollinator gardens are native meadow or prairie plants. Adapted to harsh environments, they don’t need rich soil and never need fertilizer. Most of these plants are drought-tolerant, so they don’t need irrigation once they are established, and many are deer-resistant. And we recommend perennials rather than annuals, so the plants come back every year. It is easier, and definitely cheaper in the long run, to plant a perennial pollinator garden than it is to buy, plant, water, and fertilize annual bedding plants every year.

**Pollinator Garden at the Nature Center**

Spring is almost here! If you are thinking about planting or expanding a pollinator garden, there are loads of great resources to get you started. The Pollinator Pathway website linked above has how-to’s and plant lists. Watch for local native plant sales. The Native Plant Center will hold its annual plant sale this year at Westchester Community College on April 30. And the Garden Club of Irvington will have native plants for sale at the Greenburgh Nature Center on May 7, plus lots of knowledgeable help on hand.

And watch this space! Over the next several months, this blog will highlight many of our favorite pollinator plants. Come see them in action at the Greenburgh Nature Center all season long!