Pollinators of Official State Flowers

A tale of pollinators and pollination

as told by the official state flowers

 

We love flowers for their beauty and for the impact they have on diverse aspects of our lives. That is why we honor them by choosing an official state flower for each state of the union. A look at the list of state flowers reveals an amazing variety of shapes, colors, perfumes and blooming seasons. Some flowers are open and rather flat; others are elongated, trumpet like, with spurs, or intricately shaped. They may be grouped in clusters or stand alone. They come in a rainbow of colors and their scents are equally varied. Some bloom briefly in just one season, others do it for a longer time.

Why do plants have flowers and why is there such a variety? We seldom think about a flower’s function.  Some even feel that they were put here for our enjoyment. The fact is that their whole purpose is to attract pollinators, those love messengers that carry pollen from blossom to blossom ensuring the development of fruits and seeds and thus the future of the plant’s species. The great variety of flowers is a sign of the diversity of their pollinators. Both the flower and the pollinator complement each other to the point that, in some cases, only one kind of pollinator can perform the job for a particular kind of plant. This mutual fine tuning is the result of a long process of co-evolution. Often one can tell the type of pollinator by looking at the structure of the flower. For instance, flat, open flowers can be pollinated by short tongued insects; longer ones require longer tongued visitors. Tubular flowers are often pollinated by hummingbirds or very long-tongued moths. Night-bloomers are pollinated by night-flyers such as hawk moths or bats.

We often think of the honey bee as the ultimate pollinator and we seldom recognize the fact that many other insects, as well as some other creatures perform that job, in fact many plants have absolutely no use for honey bees. It is true that honey bees are incredibly adaptable and that they visit a wide array of flowers through several seasons, we could say that they are “Jacks of all trades” but we must remember the second half of that saying: “and masters of none”. In many instances flowers fare better in the absence of honey bees because some of them have developed a long standing partnership with their respective pollinators. Honey bees could interfere with such specialized pollinators.

Years ago, I was looking at a book on state flowers and was astonished at their variety. It occurred to me that it was possible to teach an entire course on pollination using state flowers as examples. All it takes is one look at the assortment of state flowers to see that there must be a similar diversity of pollinators belonging to several different groups of animals, not just bees, but also flies, butterflies, moths, beetles, and even bats and birds. Maybe some day, the states will recognize the importance of pollinators and decide to honor them also. After all, flowers would not exist without pollinators.

Some flowers accept a variety of pollinators, for instance, black eyed Susan (Maryland’s state flower) and goldenrod (state flower of Kentucky, Nebraska and South Carolina). Others are more selective, such as the flowering dogwood (state flower of North Carolina and Virginia). A few are extremely specialized like the yucca (state flower of New Mexico), which needs a tiny moth. No one else can do the job. Still others require unusual pollinators like the saguaro (state flower of Arizona) whose main pollinators are bats, or columbines (state flower of Colorado) which are pollinated by hummingbirds.

Curiously, thirteen states have chosen official state flowers that are not native and therefore not truly representative of the state. Fortunately seven of them decided to add an official state wildflower, for instance, the state flower of Ohio is the carnation and its wildflower is the white trillium. I will mention a few of them because they contribute something valuable to this tale of pollination. In other cases, I will refer to the state tree if it bears flowers that add something to the pollination story.

One may wonder why some states chose flowers native to the old world rather than those that represent the state flora. It seems that state flowers were chosen more for their beauty, or economic importance. Perhaps part of the explanation is that this is such a nation of immigrants that many people are more familiar with the rose or the carnation than with any local flowers. Economic importance counts too. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Florida chose the orange blossom as a state flower.

In a few cases there is some confusion about the choice of state flower. This is not surprising considering that legislators are not botanists. The common name could include only one or several species of similar plants. Which one of several violets is the state symbol? Those states that chose the rose, were they thinking of a native species of rose, or one of the common cultivated varieties? Different sources give slightly different interpretations to these choices. In general, I will follow the scientific nomenclature used by the United States National Arboretum, but I may include other interpretations in some instances if they illustrate an interesting pollination point.

Here is the story of pollination and pollinators as told through the examples of official state flowers. In the next post I will describe the kind of pollination that took place long before there were any insects or other animals to do the job, in fact, long before there were flowers. Then, I will examine the earliest forms of insect pollination. In following posts I will cover an assortment of floral strategies, from the ones that attract hordes of different pollinators to the specialists that prefer to deal with a select number of helpers or even just one. I will include some strategies that include nasty tricks played on pollinators and also an intriguing phenomenon, toxic nectar. It makes one wonder why a flower would want to make its pollinators sick. I haven’t forgotten pollinators of a different kind, non-insect ones, birds and bats. Finally, to wrap up this tale, I will take a look at state flowers and pollinators of economic importance.

More on pollinators and state flowers

Before there were Flowers: Wind Pollination

The Earliest Pollinators: Beetles and Flies

Mass Appeal and Pollination
This Way to the Restaurant

 

References

US National Arboretum. Trees and Flowers

State Symbols, USA

Netstate. Official State Flowers 

Dowden, Anne O. State Flowers. 1978
Cooper, Jason, The Rourke Guide to State Symbols. Flowers. 194

List of articles
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2015

Pine Barrens, Plants and their Pollinators

Pine tree shedding pollen

The Pine Barrens of New Jersey is well worth a visit. The Pinelands Preservation Alliance is dedicated to preserve this unique treasure. Let us take a look at some of the pollinators of its plant community.

The predominant tree and the one that gives the name to the place is the pine tree, especially the pitch pine (Pinus rigida). It uses the wind for pollen transport. This ancient method of pollination existed long before there were any flowering plants or any pollen carriers. The features that make wind pollination possible are: the production of vast amounts of pollen and the relative proximity of plants to each other.

Some members of the flowering plants group have reverted to the time honored tradition of wind pollination; they do just fine without the help of pollinators. Such are oaks, birches, most maples, grasses and sedges, among others. Notice that such plants grow fairly close to each other and produce abundant pollen.

Plants that employ the services of pollinators invest some of their energy in producing flowers that attract and recompense the visitors. This investment is compensated by the reduced need to produce large amounts of pollen. Flowers have an array of different techniques to accomplish this. Here are some found in the Pine Barrens.

Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana). Magnolias are among the oldest flowering plants. Their ancestors resorted to the only available pollinators at that time, rather clumsy ones, such as beetles. Beetles mouth parts are good for biting and chewing, not for delicately gathering pollen and nectar. They chew on the flowers along with feeding on some pollen and can make a big mess. Magnolias continue to be pollinated mostly by beetles and they tend to have rather tough, leathery petals to protect themselves against such insults.

Wild cherry (Prunus serotina). The shape of its flowers is relatively simple and open, its pollen and nectar are easy to reach, thus a large number of species of bees and even other insects visit these flowers. Some of these flies mimic bees very skillfully and manage to fool not only hungry birds but even some human observers.

Mountain laurel in bloom

Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). This attractive flower has a very peculiar shape. The anthers (the part of the flower that carries the pollen) remain caught inside little pockets made by the petals; their stalks or filaments remain taut and ready to snap. When an insect lands on the flower they spring to action. Each anther comes out of the pocket and gives the insect a good dusting of pollen.

Blueberries, cranberries (Vaccinium corymbosum, Vaccinium macrocarpon and others). The anthers of these flowers are shaped very differently from those of most other flowers. They don’t split open exposing the pollen; instead they have an opening at the end of the anther. The way to get the pollen out requires some skillful work by the pollinator. It has to hang on to the flower and give it a good shake; the way you shake a salt shaker. Some bumblebees and many other native bees are very adept at this task. The blueberry bee (Habropoda laboriosa), can pollinate so many flowers in her short adult life of a few weeks that her labor can result on $20 worth of blueberries, probably more at today’s prices.

Honey bees, on the other hand, never learned how to perform this task. They do visit blueberries and cranberries and accomplish pollination although not as efficiently as the native bees and bumblebees. However, large blueberry and cranberry operations resort to honey bees because of the convenience of placing hives on the fields and because such large tracts of land fail to provide nesting places for native bees. Pollinating these berries is stressful for honey bees; they are not well adapted to such diet and suffer as a consequence. Wild grown berries, on the other hand, get all their needed pollination from native bees.

Lady slipper (Cypripedium acaule). The lovely orchid known as lady slipper can play unpleasant tricks on pollinators; its elaborate shape is nothing but a seductive trap with a complicated escape route. The flower yields an aroma that some bees find irresistible. When they reach the flower, they perch at the edge of the sac and frequently slip and fall. Soon they find that they can’t get out the way they came in because the inside walls are very slippery and the lip of the sac curves inwards making it even harder. Fortunately the orchid has provided a ladder at the back of the flower and a very narrow passage that leads back to freedom. The bee that struggles through this tunnel gets a sac of pollen, called pollinia, stuck to its back. It will remember the unfortunate experience long enough to move away from that patch of orchids; but shortly afterward, it will be quite willing to repeat the experience because its little brain will have forgotten all about it.

Magnolias and Beetle Pollination
Lady slipper

Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

Nectar: Drink with a Zing?

We saw that floral nectars aren’t just empty calories (Nectar: Breakfast of Champions); they supply pollinators with valuable nourishment. The singular properties of nectar don’t end up there. When chemists continued analyzing the nectar of diverse flowers they found a few surprises.

In some instances caffeine or nicotine are added to the menu. Who would have thought! Then again, if bees love spilled Coca-Cola, it is perhaps for more than the sweetness. Do the clients of floral restaurants seek these stimulants? Do flowers find it important to indulge such demands? One thing is clear: some special ingredients in nectar must be important, both for the pollinator and the flower.

There are cases in which the sugar in nectar ferments into alcohol to the point that it may intoxicate thirsty flower visitors. Bumble bees visiting such flowers behave like drunken sailors, bumping clumsily into flower parts, shaking loose the pollen from the anthers and thus getting an extra dose of pollen dusting. Moreover, they neglect their fastidious grooming and remain rather dusty all over for some time. Perhaps this is beneficial to the flower which may end up getting more pollination under these circumstances. Nobody knows for sure but it is an interesting theory. I wonder whether the little gourmets develop a taste for certain vintages and visit more frequently the restaurants that deliver the desired beverage.

The flowers of a palm tree in Malaysia produce alcohol that can reach a concentration of 3.8%, comparable to some beers. And the tree smells like it! There is a little tree shrew, a fairly unusual pollinator, which visits these flowers assiduously. Up and down the trunk it runs visiting thousands of flowers. It is capable of drinking the equivalent of nine glasses of wine, day after day during the blooming season. Those who have studied this behavior claim that the animals show no sign of loss of coordination or similar consequences of heavy drinking.

Pollinators do a lot of traveling in their quest for nectar and pollen. They carry more than what is intended from flower to flower. Like tiny typhoid-Maries they are likely to pick up and spread pathogens along with their legitimate cargo of pollen. Nectar is the perfect culture broth for many bacteria and fungi. Flowers can become quite sick so they need to protect their precious reproductive organs against infections. It should come as no surprise that they can produce an assortment of antiseptics. There are substances in nectar that produce peroxide, the same disinfectant your mother used to apply to your scraped knees.

Perhaps the most mysterious thing is that some nectars carry bitter tasting substances and even toxins. What would be the purpose of that? Some of the bad tasting ones deter only some flower visitors, while they don’t bother others. Perhaps the plant is being selective, inviting only the most efficient pollinators and keeping others away. It is also possible that some pollinators can only tolerate a small amount of the bitter nectar, thus, abandoning the flower sooner and performing more pollination with less consumption of nectar. Let us remember that nectar production is an expensive investment for the plant.

Most plants produce toxins to protect leaves, stems, etc. against the hordes of herbivores. In other words, plants synthesize organic pesticides. Ordinarily they filter out these toxins from the nectar. But some accomplish this only partially. It seems like an unfortunate side effect, an instance of unintended contamination. Perhaps we are not the first ones to run into such a problem, plants made that blunder millions of years ago.

Nectar chemistry
Nectar, the first soft drink
Tiny treeshrews chug alcoholic nectar without getting drunk
Nectar, breakfast of champions

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

Nectar: Breakfast of Champions

I used to believe that flower nectar was sugary water and not much else. That simple drink should be adequate for many of the insects that visit flowers. Sugar provides the fuel to power their flight, thus taking care of a fundamental need. Many insects have a very short adult life. They have already accumulated, during their larval life, most of the nourishment that they need as adults. In fact there are even some insects, such as the Luna moth, that do not feed at all as adults. Moreover, nectar drinkers often have other foods in their menu. For instance, bees collect pollen, as well as nectar, from flowers; wasps hunt insects. So it wouldn’t be surprising if nectar provided nothing more than sugar as a reward to pollinators.

I was wrong, but I wasn’t alone in my ignorance. Only recently, scientists have been able to study the chemistry of nectar, given the tiny amounts available for study. What they have learned in recent years surprised everybody. Nectar is a true cocktail including an assortment of substances, from nutritious to intoxicating, not to mention scented, colored or with preservatives. Flowers are known for the complexity and diversity of their shapes and colors. Now we know that their nectar can be just as rich in complexity and variety. Nectar drinkers seem to be connoisseurs of the restaurants they visit and flowers must have good reasons for developing such a complex menu to satisfy the demands of their clientele.

First of all the concentrations of sugars vary depending on a number of factors. Perhaps, the most important one is the most frequent visitors of a particular species. Butterflies and moths and some bees have very long tongues which they use like drinking straws. They visit flowers that provide a rather watery drink not likely to clog these very thin pipes. On the other hand, other insects, with shorter tongues, merely lap or slurp fluids and can take advantage of thicker nectar, richer in sugar.


In addition to sugar there are other substances in nectar. Like the power drinks used by athletes some contain ion supplements, such as potassium and sodium. Other common supplements of nectar are aminoacids, the building blocks of proteins. Let us remember that adult butterflies and moths cannot eat any solids. They have no chewing parts, only a long, thin tongue good enough for fluids and maybe the occasional pollen grain. As I mentioned before, most insects are short lived and may do fine without proteins in their diet, but the beloved monarch butterflies live for several months and have to make an arduous journey. They certainly need a well balanced diet; sugar alone would not suffice them.

There are other ingredients in nectar which I will discuss in future posts. I only want to mention here that in addition to nutrition, these substances may add flavor to this food making it more attractive to the pollinators and other flower visitors.

It is rather amazing to realize that we didn’t invent energy drinks; flowers did it millions of years ago. It gives me pause when I prepare to refill the hummingbird feeder. Are we turning our loved birds into soft drink junkies? Would they be better off without our help? I don’t feel too guilty because I know that they also feed on insects so they must be getting a balanced diet despite the empty calories at the hummingbird feeder. But, just in case, I will start growing plants for hummingbirds in my garden and cutting down on the junk food.


I can think of a few (natives only): butterfly weed, lobelia, beebalm, columbines, trumpet honeysuckle, penstemon, zinnia, nicotiana. Any suggestions?

Here is a list of “Top Ten” native hummingbird plants of the Operation Rubythroat web site.

Nectar, a drink with a zing
Nectar chemistry
Nectar, the first soft drink
Tiny treeshrews chug alcoholic nectar without getting drunk

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

Death among the flowers

Pollinators have such a glamorous job. They fly from flower to flower collecting golden pollen and sweet, delicious nectar. What could be better? Indeed it is a wonderful job; but just as there are snakes in paradise, there are hidden dangers among the lovely flowers. Life can be very cruel in the garden.

Ambush bugs have a very well deserved name. They wait in hiding among the flowers. Sometimes they are very hard to spot because they hide among the petals, only their alert eyes and antennae can be seen. Their sharp beaks, loaded with poison at the ready and their powerful front legs prepared to snap with vise like action.

Ambush bug, Phymata

One sunny day I was walking in the garden enjoying the comings and goings of diligent pollinators when I spotted this little killer, a jagged ambush bug. One look at its contours renders the name self explanatory. Perhaps the jagged shape makes it hard to swallow by would be predators. It also must help on disguising its appearance.

I snapped a couple of pictures and was about to move on when I saw a bumble bee land on the flower. The next few photos were taken less than a minute later and show the fate of the unfortunate bumble bee. Had it been more careful it would have escaped his fate. The amazing thing is that there was no struggle. The venom of the ambush bug must be so powerful and fast acting that it paralyzes a victim twice the size of the killer instantly.

Male two-spotted bumble bee, Bombus bimaculatus

Being a pollinator can be a hard life. But that is the way it is for everybody out there, including the killers.

Indeed, life and death go hand in hand in the garden.
List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

Jack-in-the-pulpit and its cruel deception

Early in the spring you can often see Jack-in-the-pulpits in your walks through the forest. The peculiar shape of its flowers gives it its name, a big leaf, the spathe, makes up the pulpit and a rod inside, the spadix, is the person. It is the spadix that carries the minute and numerous flowers; some plants have only masculine flowers inside the pulpit and others have only female flowers. How are they pollinated? They don’t have flashy colors nor perfume, they are not placed in a prominent place like most flowers but they are close to the ground and hidden beneath the leaves. So what kind of insects do they attract? The jack-in-the-pulpit belongs in the same family as the calla lily and the skunk cabbage, this family is notorious for using all kind of ruses to attract pollinators without giving them any reward and Jack-in-the-pulpit is no exception.


Apparently the flower of Jack-in-the-pulpit smells somewhat like mushrooms and attracts fungus gnats. The insects fall inside the pulpit and if it is a male flower they get covered with pollen in their effort to escape. The sides are so slippery that they can’t climb up and keep falling back to the bottom, fortunately there is a small hole at the base of the pulpit and they eventually find their way out; they leave the place no worse for the wear, although probably somewhat mortified by their mistake. They don’t seem to learn their lesson and keep on venturing inside other Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers. If they fall into a female flower they leave their load of pollen on it, but in this case they cannot escape, there is no opening at the base. Every maturing fruit of a Jack-in-the-pulpit contains one or several entombed gnats wrapped by the dried up spathe. That is how this plant repays its pollinators, a cruel deception indeed!


   
Read more
Jack-in-the-pulpit

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

What is good for the birds is good for the bees

Let us say that you want to help pollinators by creating a habitat in your garden that is beneficial to them. If you are a nature lover and have been trying to attract birds to your yard, chances are that you have already been helping the pollinators without knowing it.

At the top of the list of what you can do for both birds and pollinators are two things: grow native plants and avoid pesticides. By native plants we mean not just native to North America, but to the particular region where you are located.

Plants and animals of each region have been adapting to each other for eons. Local plants usually provide the best food and shelter for the local wildlife. More specifically, wild flowers provide the right cues and produce the right food for pollinators, e. g.: scent, kind and amount of nectar and pollen, right colors and shape. Many times, cultivars and non-native plants lack one or the other of these features and are worthless to native pollinators. Of course, this is not always the case; many species of bees visit the flowers of introduced fruit trees and butterflies find the non native butterfly bushes to their liking; but these are the exceptions, rather than the rule.

Dead trees or snags or dead branches provide housing for pollinators, they are also good for birds. A brush pile, some leaf litter, keeping dried up tall grasses all winter, also turning some of your lawn into a meadow, a variety of flowering and berry producing shrubs and trees are, once again, good for both kinds of creatures providing food or shelter or both.

I would add to this list small lawn "weeds", all those little broad leaved plants that some people consider unsightly, are helpful to pollinators and are actually beneficial to your lawn, for instance, enriching the soil in the case of clover. So, if we could change our vision of what is esthetically pleasing we would be benefiting our precious wildlife.

Finally, a few bare spots in the lawn are not a bad thing; some pollinators nest in the ground, building pencil thick tunnels and storing pollen and nectar at the bottom of such tunnels. Mulch, gravel or a very thick lawn may prevent them from finding the right spot. Is it too much to ask to allow a few bare spots in the farther areas of a yard where they are out of sight?

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2012