Pollinators and Flowers
Page 4
Let us save the native bees
There are about four thousand species of wild bees in this country; most of them are solitary or have very rudimentary social life. We have no idea of the magnitude of their service to the pollination of wild flowers or even some of our crops, but keep in mind that they, along with a number of other pollinators took care of all the pollination needs of this continent before the honey bee arrived brought by the settlers. This intruder might have displaced many of the native populations. We know that a variety of native plants are pollinated more efficiently or entirely by native bees. One of the biggest threats to native bees along with the invasion of honey bees is loss of habitat. We can help them even in our own backyards.
Bees need nesting sites and you can very easily supply them with the right space for them to build their nests. Some drill holes in wood or use already existent holes made by beetles. Other solitary bees dig holes in the ground. A dead tree is a valuable commodity for them.
You could leave some dead tree in your property instead of cutting it down to the ground. You may have to remove some of the branches for safety reasons and keep the trunk and main branches. Of course your neighbors and visitors may frown upon such untidiness. You may explain to the neighbors that it is an abstract sculpture. A dead tree isn’t lacking in beauty but it takes a readjustment of our esthetic vision to accept such a sight: the architecture of the branches, the subtle hues of the weathered wood, the contrast between its stark lines and the exuberant greenery of the rest of your yard add an interesting note to the whole. In addition to supplying homes for these valuable pollinators a dead tree may be very beneficial to woodpeckers, which may even prefer it to your live trees and leave them alone. And remember that when you are leaving that dead tree in your yard you are not really doing the pollinators a favor but allowing them to have what is legitimately theirs. This is the way of Nature.
If you want to help the native bees even further, you can drill a few holes in the dead wood, they should be about the width of an ordinary pencil (they can be a little wider or a little narrower, there are so many species of bees that they come in several different sizes). The holes should be about six to eight inches long, slightly slanted upwards to protect them from the rain and they should face south or south east so the sun warms them up in the morning. I hope that next spring you get a few tenants in your bee condo.
Many other species of native bees dig holes in the ground, they need bare ground, no mulch, no gravel but bare ground in a location that doesn’t get flooded easily. If the location is right the daughters and granddaughters will dig their nests in the same general area which becomes like a little city. They are still solitary bees in the sense that they don’t cooperate like honey bees or bumblebees, it is not a real colony, but they probably benefit from their proximity; in nature quite often there is safety in numbers. A patch of bare soil in your garden, preferably out of sight if you don’t want to be accused of sloppiness, somewhat shaded, would be ideal and, oh yes, free from pesticides that would kill the unfortunate tenants.
The Midge and the chocolate lover.
What does a midge have to do with chocolate? More than you think. Chocolate comes from cocoa trees, that grow in the tropics. These trees look quite different from most other plants. Instead of having flowers in the most conspicuous places, they have them in the trunk and lowest branches. These flowers are small and white and face down, the reason for all this is that they attract tiny flies, known as midges rather than bees or other better known pollinators. The midges are ordinarily attracted to fungus and the cocoa flowers smell somewhat mushroomy, too. In essence, for the cocoa tree to bear fruit, first it has to be pollinated by midges.
Think about it next time that you eat a bite of that marvelous thing known as chocolate.
Where is the flower of a fig tree?
Have you ever seen a fig tree in bloom? No? However they do bloom but in a very unusual way and they attract very unusual pollinators also. The tiny fig that will become the fruit later on is like a goblet with an opening at the far end. Inside the goblet are the minute flowers facing the cavity inside it. Who would visit and pollinate such a flower? There are minuscule wasps that are able to identify the figs, find the little hole and crawl inside. It is such a tight fit that quite often they lose their wings in the process, which doesn't matter because they will never fly again. They proceed to lay their eggs on the stigmas (the female part) of the flower, the egg cells are just below them) so their larvae will feed on some of the seeds; while doing so they end up pollinating the other flowers ensuring that the fig will set seed and grow into a mature fruit and also ensuring that their babies will have room and board while growing up. After that they die without ever leaving the fig. When the babies reach maturity they fly out of the maturing fig carrying pollen and repeating the whole thing.
So, let us face it, each time that we eat a fig we are also swallowing one or more dead wasps. But don't worry about it, they are really tiny and besides they are just animal protein.
Beatriz Moisset
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