Lawn for Pollinators. Grass Companions

Yellow violet

Ordinarily a lawn is a desert, very unwelcoming to wildlife from tiny insects to birds. It doesn't have to be this way. A lawn can supply food for pollinators and even for birds; it can also provide housing for some pollinators.

We can make our lawns more nature-friendly by readjusting our notions of aesthetics: a perfectly manicured lawn that looks like an indoor green carpet need not be the only ideal of lawn beauty. Instead, a lawn with some variety of plants which includes a few broad-leaved “weeds” has its own kind of natural beauty; let us call them “grass companions.”

The very first step, naturally, is to avoid insecticides and herbicides whenever possible. The choice of broad-leaved small plants that you can allow in your lawn is a little trickier and it may take some time to get the right combination; but the final product would be a pleasant lawn that requires less care and less fertilizing, providing more resilience to droughts and pests in addition to being more hospitable to desirable wildlife. There are a number of little flowering plants that grow in lawns completely uninvited that we are constantly trying to eradicate; however we could start welcoming some of them.

Ideally, you want only non-invasive lawn flowers, preferably native ones, but this would require effort beyond that which many gardener would be willing to invest. So it is understandable when gardeners accept some non-natives; after all most lawns are made up of grasses which may not be native to your region.

Some of my favorite grass companions, such as violets, bluets and spring beauties do well only where foot traffic is minimal, or where mowing is less frequent. Others can take a good amount of abuse:

Bluets

• Blue eyed grasses (Sisyrinchium, several species) not a true grass but a member of the iris family, with pretty blue flowers.
• Cinquefoils, (Potentilla).
• Wild strawberries (Fragaria, several species). The five lobed leaves of this and those of cinquefoils are very similar in appearance.
• Yellow violets (Viola pennsylvanica), and other kinds of violets too.
• Spring beauties (Claytonia)
• Wild geraniums, crane’s-bills (Geranium)
• Azure bluets (Houstonia caerulea).
• Speedwells (Veronica), there are several species, some of them are native others introduced.
• Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), used as ground cover by some gardeners.
• Chickweeds include two genera: Cerastium and Stellaria. They are also known by several other common names; some species are native and small enough to do well in lawns, such as field chickweed, (Cerastium arvense) and star chickweed (Stellaria pubera).
• Smartweeds, knotweeds, many species in the genus Polygonum; some are small enough to do well in lawns. Some species are native and others introduced.
• Asters (Symphyotrichum) are great in the fall. Some grow rather tall, better for a meadow than a lawn; but if mowed not too frequently, they can do well and bloom heavily inviting many species of pollinators.

Among the non-natives, a very useful one is clover, (white clover, Trifolium repens) a European plant very well established in the United States; it used to be included in grass seed mixes because it helps fix nitrogen, enriching the soil as a consequence. There are a few species of clover that are native to some regions of North America. Chickweeds, also known as starweed, bindweed, winterweed, as mentioned above some are native others aren’t; the seeds of some are eaten by some birds, hence the name chickweed. Gill over the ground, or ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), is rather pretty but it can be very invasive. Thyme, (Thymus several species) has been used as ground cover sometimes. Scarlet pimpernel, (Anagalis arvensis) a European plant with small pink flowers. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is among the non-native invasives which you may not want to see around. Some think that it doesn't provide much of anything to pollinators despite its colorful flowers, others fear that it may compete for pollinators with some native flowers, reducing their pollination.

Chickweed

These are just a few of the "grass companions" that do well in my region, the Mid Atlantic. Other areas might use some of the same along with other “companions” based on regional conditions.

A simple practice that can be helpful to pollinators in your lawn is to allow some bare spots in dry and sunny places that can be used for nesting by bees and some insect eating wasps. Some leaf litter, especially on or near flower beds, can provide shelter for fritillary caterpillars and hummingbird moth caterpillars and a few other wintering moths and butterflies.

Asters

Lawn for pollinators, part II
Lawn for pollinators, part III

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Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2010

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?

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© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

Our friend the elephant mosquito

Male elephant mosquito sipping nectar of goldenrod flowers. Notice the elaborate antennae

Elephant mosquitoes have a well deserved name; they are giants among mosquitoes. Their wing span reaches almost half an inch. They have a formidably long proboscis; you would think that they may have a vicious bite. Not so, the good news is that they do not feed on blood like many of their relatives; instead they are often found on flowers, drinking nectar with their long tongues in a poor imitation of butterflies. Just like butterflies they carry pollen from flower to flower, so we should welcome them in our gardens.

The delicate long tongue stretches and bends almost like that of a butterfly. Video

The scales that cover their bodies are somewhat iridescent and their legs are thin and long, even more so than many mosquitoes. The males have long, feathery antennae of an intricate shape; better to detect the vibrations, the buzz emitted by females.

Not only are they pollinators but they also have a remarkable virtue. They lay their eggs in water, not in large bodies of water but in holes such as old tires or tree holes; the very same places where the larvae of many species of mosquitoes grow and prosper. The nice thing about elephant mosquitoes is that they feed on the larvae of their relatives. So, the adults are well behaved and don't hurt us, instead they pollinate flowers, and their larvae provide another service to us by feeding on the pests that give us so much discomfort or even transmit diseases. So, let us celebrate our friend the elephant mosquito.

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© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

Bumblebees and Turtleheads

Some flowers are easy to pollinate, wide open, with free access to pollen and nectar; an insect with no skills and no elaborate equipment can collect food without difficulty. Other flowers make things interesting; their pollinators have to figure out how to enter them and how to reach the hidden rewards. It is great fun observing the labors of some bumblebees visiting one of these "difficult" flowers.

Last summer my friend's garden was brimming with turtleheads and the turtleheads were brimming with visitors, not a great variety (I only saw bumblebees) but a large number. This flower deserves its name, it looks like the head of a turtle, with powerful jaws and a large cavity inside, where the nectar is hidden and where the important parts of the flower lay, the male parts which carry pollen and the female parts, which receive the pollen and produce the seeds.


Young flowers, like the one above are not quite ready for visitors and clench their jaws tightly. This bumblebee tried in vain to enter the blossom and never got more than its head inside so it gave up the effort and tried a different one.


The next flower must have been just right, the entrance was slightly open, and this time it entered without difficulty and spent several seconds out of sight collecting whatever reward it could find, perhaps just pollen or nectar, more likely both.



The fun started when it tried to leave the same way it came. It kept backing up but, no matter how hard it tried, it just couldn't get out tail first; so it went deeper inside to make a U turn; out it came, head first and briskly flew away.


It promptly learned the way in and the way out and when it entered other flowers it turned around without hesitation and emerged head first. Interestingly, in some cases it entered the right side of the mouth and left through the left. Not all flowers were so hard to exit; some, maybe older ones had loosened their jaws a little further, the mouth stood agape and bees came and went with no difficulty and no need to turn around. You can see it all in a video.

It makes you wonder why bumblebees persist on visiting difficult flowers and why flowers make things difficult for their pollinators. From the point of view of the flower, it must be advantageous to select its clientele, allowing only those with the right equipment (e. g. a long tongue, powerful muscles, the correct size) and with enough intelligence and memory to figure out what to do. In this way they ensure that their pollen gets carried to other flowers of the same species and doesn't get wasted on different flowers.

To satisfy the demands of such a clientele the flower has to offer the right incentives. So, such flowers are likely to yield large amounts of nectar, richer pollen or both. Thus, the reasons for a bumblebee to visit such flowers become obvious; it is worth the extra effort if the recompense is far superior to the one offered by plain, easily accessible flowers.

Bumble Bees, the Pandas of the Insect World

Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

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© Beatriz Moisset. 2011