Buzzing with Pollinators

While you stand and admire the Logger’s Statue, take a minute to look around you at the plants along the riverbank and the insects moving through and on the plants. Maybe the Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) is in bloom, with its pink clusters of small flowers? Is it fall and the yellow Goldenrod (Solidago species) and White Panicle Aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum) are flowering? Do you see the bees, beetles, wasps and butterflies who are visiting these plants? Maybe you see a caterpillar, many of whom use these plants for shelter as well as food. Joe Pye Weed, for example, provides nectar and pollen for insects (like the honey bee and butterflies) and seeds for birds.

Did you know that the plants in the Asteracea family (like White Panicle Asters, Sunflowers or Pale Purple Coneflowers) have specialized flowers? Each individual “petal” is actually a flower. So what looks like one flower to us is actually made up of a bunch of individual flowers. No wonder pollinators love them!

If you’re passing by in the spring, stop by the flowering Crabapple trees to watch the bees harvesting nectar and pollen from the blossoms. As the bees buzz from flower to flower collecting nectar and pollen they are, as nature would have it, also fertilizing the flowers so that fruit may grow. Without the bees there would be no fruiting and no crabapples for the birds, squirrels and rabbits to eat. Crabapple trees are not native to Haliburton County, but the bees don’t seem to care. They are attracted by the fragrance of the blossoms and the sweet promise of nectar and sticky pollen.

Do you have apple trees on your property from which you can harvest apples? Maybe they’re Heritage Apples. Check out the Heritage apple project, a partnership of the Haliburton County Master Gardeners and scientists at the University of Guelph.