The power of pollinators

The birds and the bees – and beyond.

The blooms this spring have been beautiful. As I write we are enjoying local fresh and juicy fruit and vegetables; we had French strawberries twice this week, and a few nights ago, I made a savoury tart with chunky courgettes, aubergines and tomatoes from a local producer. This blog is an ode to the tiny creatures who are responsible for our fresh produce – the pollinators.

We can celebrate the power of pollinators every day in the spring and summer months, and a dedicated Pollinator Week was introduced 18 years ago (this year it ran from 17-23 June).

Spring

In the south of France, it has unusually been a cooler and wetter spring than in previous years. A welcome change for us and the climate, although elsewhere in the world the stories are quite different. (As a side note: March – May ‘24 has seen a mean temperature increase in both Hemispheres of 0.68°C compared to the 1991 – 2020 average. Source: Copernicus).

This spring my family and I purposely spent time spotting bees and butterflies in pollination action. Just recently, when we were at a friend’s house, we observed a Tamarisk shrub that had about 50 bees feasting on it.

The bees are the royalty of pollination, but who are the others and how do they pollinate? Let’s have a look at the power of pollinators.

Enjoy the read…

Pollinators

As these small animals drink the sweet nectar and eat the protein-rich pollen, they help plants reproduce by moving the pollen between the male and female parts of the flower, and by dropping tufts of pollen on their travels.

Flower close-up — Photo by Nicole Anne Pandacan on Unsplash

Stripey pollinators

Bees

20,000 bee species
Bees who are on active pollination duty are attracted by the plants’ nectar, they collect the pollen when they’ve reached the flower
The nectar is for them to eat, the pollen is used by the queen to lay eggs
Fun fact! Bumble bees detach the pollen through fast-wing vibration, which makes the famous ‘buzz’ sound – known as buzz pollination

Wasps

There are around 30,000 varieties of wasps
There are social wasps -in a group building a large nest- and solitary wasps. Most are of the solitary kind that don’t sting!
The pollination by wasps is accidental – they are after the nectar, but they have very fine hairs on their legs and bodies, which trap the pollen
Fun fact! Wasps are the predecessors of bees, who are believed to have evolved from them
Did you know? Wasps help farmers! They capture insects that eat and destroy crops (wasps then feed these to their young)

Moths and butterflies

180,000 species have been recorded, but many more are added each year
There are more moth species than butterfly species
They feed on nectar and pick up pollen by accident, which they then spread to other flowers
Butterflies are important pollinators because they mainly land on the outer part of the flower, so they have time to visit many more flowers than bees do (who go to the inner flower)
Fun fact! In recent years, scientists have found that butterflies are crucial to the pollination of cotton fields

Unexpected insect pollinators

Flies

85,000 species
Some flies are a nuisance as they eat crops and can carry diseases
The pollinator flies include hoverflies and blowflies. With flies (and most insects), the pollen covers them by accident
Flies live alone so they can roam freely and carry the pollen further than other insects
Flies are robust, they are not too sensitive to changing weather conditions, so they can fly in colder and wetter weather, and for more hours during the day
Fun fact: Flies (and beetles) were already around in the late Jurassic Era

Beetles

Beetles are attracted to flowers that are bow-shaped because they aren’t the most adept fliers, so they like magnolias and water lilies
But they often eat through the leaves and petals, which is why magnolias have adapted to grow thicker leaves
Fun fact! Beetles are found in different organism groups: plant, animal, fungus and bacterial (bacterial = symbioses between beetles and bacteria)

Other flying pollinators

Birds

Hummingbirds are the most important bird pollinators, because they are small in size and the shape of their long slender beak is perfect to get to the nectar that is deep within the flower
They need a lot of nectar as they have to replenish their energy, because they flap their wings extremely fast
Fun fact! Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards

Bats

Bats also drink the nectar of flowers. They feed on more than 500 plant varieties
They can carry the pollen for a long distance as they travel further than insects
Fun fact! Bats love the agave plant, which mostly flowers at night when it is less hot. Bats are active in the dark and they are attracted to the smell they give off – of rotting fruit and ammonia!

Small foraging mammals

Squirrels & chipmunks

These small mammals forage on flowers and plants (and of course fruit, seeds and nuts) which disperses the pollen
Squirrels can successfully open-up flowers
Coincidental pollination is also helped by the way they make their nests with twigs, leaves, grass, moss and vines
Fun fact! Squirrels’ nests have a different structure in the summer and winter months to adapt to the climate

(Sources: Farmers.gov, Xerces Society, Pollinator.org, Buzz About Bees, National Geographic, Simsbury Pollinator, Perky Pet, Smithsonian, Science, US Forest Service, Focus on Natives, Bat Conservation International, Secret Garden Landscapes, Garden Riots, Kaytee, Ark Wildlife)