I hear people talk about pollinators and pollinations, but I find it confusing. Can you help me understand? OD

Pollination is the process of moving pollen from the anthers (the male part of the flower) to the stigma (the female part of the flower). When this happens within the same flower of a plant it is called self-pollination. When it happens between different flowers it is called cross-pollination. In either case, it’s usually pollinators that move the pollen from where it is to where it needs to go. There are exceptions that occur in crops like corn which is pollinated by the wind, but for the largest percentage of plants, pollinators are involved.

Most of us are familiar with European honeybees as pollinators, but in reality, they are responsible for a only small percentage of pollination events. Other pollinators like birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, wasps, or other animals do most of the heavy lifting. In some parts of the world, Lemurs are pollinators.

The primary purpose of the flowers on our plants is to attract a pollinator so that the plant can reproduce: the shape, the color, the smell, the nectar, all contribute to attract pollinators. Different flowers attract different pollinators. Different shapes attract different pollinators. If you have noticed, hummingbirds are attracted to flowers that are more tubular in shape which matches their beaks that get inserted into the flower to gather nectar. Other flowers or flower clusters are flatter, giving a butterfly, moth, or larger insect a place to land and walk around while gathering nectar and inadvertently pollinating the flower. Corn doesn’t have colorful flowers to attract pollinators since the wind takes care of pollination for them. It’s the circle of life on display every day if you have some type of garden in your yard.

Just to put out there how important pollination and pollinators are; 3/4 of the world’s flowering plants and about 1/3 of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators for pollination. European honeybees are important in that process, but the reality is that native bees are the primary bee pollinator of agricultural crops in the United States. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees in the world with the United States hosting about 4000 of those species.

European honeybees have perhaps the highest public awareness as pollinators because it is popular among gardeners to maintain honeybee hives for both honey production and to make sure they have a nearby source of pollinators for their gardens. But of the 4000 or so bee species we have in the U.S., 90% of those are what we call solitary bees meaning that each female constructs and provides for her own nest rather than living in the communal beehive we are familiar with.

Here’s an example of just how many pollinators are needed for one single crop: almonds. California produces about 80% of the world’s almond supply. Currently, there are about 1.2 million acres of almonds in California with each acre containing approximately 125 almond trees. Each tree produces about 6000 almonds which translates to about 900 billion almonds per year or 100 almonds for each and every person in the world.

Almond growers need two bee colonies per acre. Since each colony contains about 20,000 bees, that means California plays host to about 48 billion bees pollinating almonds each year. If you do the math, that is about one bee for every 20 almonds. None of this is possible without honeybees and so each February approximately 90% of the U.S. honeybee population is in California. No, they do not travel there by natural means but instead, bee colonies are rented and trucked there for the pollination season.

Unfortunately, many estimates show a decline in pollinator populations throughout the U.S. There are a variety reasons for this, many of which are our fault.

One of the problems is that we appropriate native pollinator habitats for the building of houses or commercial structures. Once disrupted, the habitats are gone forever. We can help counteract this by creating pollinator habitats within our yards. This isn’t a difficult task; it just means we need to lean more toward more native plants than exotics in our gardens if we want to be part of the solution.

Some people would attempt to counter this by saying “a flower is a flower.” But native pollinators are more familiar with native plants and as such prefer them. To illustrate this, just think of the difference between BBQ found in Tulsa vs BBQ found in NYC. While the BBQ found in NYC might technically fit into the BBQ category and perhaps even be nourishing, most of us would prefer our local BBQ any day of the week. It’s what we are used to. To be fair, people from NYC likely look down their noses at our local pizza establishments, preferring a slice from home over the pizza many of us enjoy, but you get the point.

Another contributing factor to the decline in the pollinator population is our use of pesticides. Pesticides have their place in the landscape, but overuse or even improper use contributes to unnecessary pollinator deaths each year.

So, if we are going to identify the top two things we could do to help the essential pollinators, we would say, make your yard/garden more like a native landscape and minimize your use of pesticide. We have information on native flowers in the Flower section of our website as well as info on organic practices for the garden.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org.

Photo: Todd Johnson, OSU Agricultural Communication Services