Spinning Tales About Pollinators

Honeybee on Rusty Lyonia - photo by Brett Pigon

Plants are vital to humans and many living things.  Through pollination and resulting fertilization, plants produce necessities, such as  food for nourishment, cotton for clothing, lumber for shelter, and seeds for reproduction.   

Pollination is the transfer of pollen in a flower from the anther (male) to the stigma (female).  It  may be intentional, incidental, or accidental.  Methods of pollination:  cross pollination (used by most plants)—the transfer of pollen from one flower to the stigma of another in a different plant of the same species by an insect, animal, wind, or water; self pollination—the transfer of pollen to the stigma within the same flower through shedding; artificial pollination—hand pollination by a human.

Carpenter bee on Buttonbush - photo by Brett Pigon

Honeybee on Rusty Lyonia - photo by Brett Pigon

Performance varies in pollinators.  Butterflies do not always efficiently pick up pollen with their bodies, legs, or tongues, although they are helpful with pollinating certain plants.  However, hummingbirds, with their long tubular bills, skillfully retrieve pollen from deep-throated flowers.  Actually, the exceptional pollinators are bees.  They intentionally collect nectar for energy and pollen for protein, and nature helps them gather this pollen with fuzzy bodies, special hind legs and abdomens, and electrostatic charge.  Furthermore, some bees, especially bumblebees, buzz pollinate—move flight muscles rapidly, causing vibration in the anthers to better release pollen in self-pollinating plants like tomatoes.  Because a large portion of food consumed is dependent on bees, they are worth billions to the global economy.   Supposedly, Albert Einstein estimated that humans would only exist four years if bees disappeared; therefore, the noticeable population decrease in these insects is alarming.  Habitat loss and degradation threaten wild species.  Consequently, growers rent or purchase bees (commercial crops are primarily pollinated by honey bees), but managed bees suffer from parasites, pathogens, and pesticides.  In some regions of China, where pesticides have discouraged bumblebees in apple and pear crops, artificial pollination is necessary.

Honeybee on Rusty Lyonia - photo by Brett Pigon

Most essential is the pollination of trees.  Besides providing food and shelter, trees are the lungs of the earth—they release oxygen.  They also furnish fuel—sunken, compressed trees ultimately become coal which fuels electricity.  How about pines (conifers) which produce turpentine through the distillation of their resin? 

Obviously, pollination is crucial.  The sudden urge to swat annoying bees or destroy any pollinators should be repressed—these beings may determine whether there are delicious apples to savor or colorful flowers to smell.  And these flowers will in turn attract needed pollinators!

Carpenter bee on holly tree - photo Brett Pigon

Carpenter bee on Buttonbush - photo by Brett Pigon

Honeybee on cactus flower - photo by Brett Pigon