Posts tagged ‘pollinators’
In major urban landscape such as Washington, D.C., a place like the Smithsonian Institution’s Butterfly Habitat Garden serves a valuable purpose as a rich and rewarding refuge, not only for butterflies, but also for bees. With so many flowers in bloom at the end of July, it’s easy to see that bees are very important for pollination. A bee moves from flower to flower searching for nutrient-rich nectar, which it laps up with its hairy tongue. In this process, pollen will collect on the bee’s body and be transferred from one flower to another, providing for the production of the seeds that sustain many gardens and wild-flower populations. On the hind legs of some bees, there are corbiculae, or pollen baskets. These serve a function similar to suitcases, allowing the bees to pack lots of pollen into the baskets for the flight back home to their colony where they share their newfound resource with many others. Solitary bees do not have pollen baskets, but species like leaf-cutter bees have very hairy abdomens, which collect a large amount of pollen. Recently the Butterfly Habitat Garden was abuzz with a large number of bee species, including bumble-, leaf-cutter, honey, and sweat bees, all collecting resources and pollinating flowers.
-Lisa Horth is a Smithsonian Gardens Enid A. Haupt Fellow and an Associate Professor of Biology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she studies plant-pollinator interactions.
Just because it is winter does not mean that our gardeners or gardens get a rest. Smithsonian Gardens welcomes visitors year-round. These visitors include many tourists but also wildlife, as our gardens serve as an important urban habitat for birds, insects, and mammals.
Within our gardens you will find many plants that add winter interest beyond our impressive annual displays of pansies, violas, and kale. Important garden features in this bleaker season include berries, grasses, seedheads, stems, bark, evergreens, and even some flowers.
Fruit and berries are a great way to brighten up a winter landscape and many serve as an important food source for birds.
When selecting plants for winter berries note whether they are deciduous or evergreen. The pointed rich green leaves of the American Holly above create a great contrast to the bright red berries while the Winterberry (Ilex ‘Sparkleberry’) below looks better with a solid backdrop like an evergreen to best stand out.
Grasses and sedges add texture to our gardens in winter and some add great color as well. Many of the grasses also provide seeds for birds in winter and nesting materials come spring.Seedheads create interest with varying shapes and textures and make a dynamic feature in winter as they mature and disperse.
Remember these seedheads are the result of earlier flowers from plants that have multiple seasons of interest. Some of these seeds are now food sources for birds, but their flowers were nectar sources, or some had foliage that fed caterpillars, in earlier seasons. Take the Wild Senna (Senna marilandica) below, for example. It is a wonder native plant with nectar-providing pea-like flowers and is a host plant for sulfur butterflies in the summer.
Differing barks and branches also play a significant role in enhancing our gardens in winter. Peeling barks of birches, brightly-stemmed twig dogwoods, and the towering dry stems of perennials can all become dominant features in the winter.
Evergreens are a key element to add structure in gardens during the winter. There are a variety of evergreens available with a myriad of shapes, textures, and even colors. Evergreens can be needled conifers but also broadleaf trees and shrubs and even some perennials hold their foliage in the winter months. They also provide important cover and shelter for many species in winter.
Lastly we can’t forget about winter flowers. There is not much that blooms at this time but those flowers that do truly give us reason to celebrate. They are also important nectar source for late and earl- season pollinators.
I encourage you to take a walk through our gardens on a nice winter day and see what interesting plants you spot.
-James Gagliardi, Smithsonian Gardens horticulturist