A pollinator habitat is an area with a variety of flowering plants that provide food and nesting space for pollinators such as bees, butterflies, birds, flies and small mammals including bats. Pollinators are anything that helps carry pollen from the male part of the flower (stamen) to the female part of the same or another flower (stigma). The movement of pollen must occur for the plant to become fertilized and produce fruits, seeds, and young plants. Some plants are self-pollinating, while others may be fertilized by pollen carried by wind or water. Still, other flowers are pollinated by insects and animals – such as bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, birds, flies and small mammals including bats.
Pollinators are essential for the survival of many plant species and ecosystems. Virtually all of the world’s seed plants need to be pollinated. This is just as true for cone-bearing plants, such as pine trees, as for the more colorful and familiar flowering plants. Pollen, looking like insignificant yellow dust, bears a plant’s male sex cells and is a vital link in the reproductive cycle. With adequate pollination, wildflowers reproduce and produce enough seeds for dispersal and propagation. They maintain genetic diversity within a population and develop adequate fruits to entice seed dispersers.
Pollinators are also important for maintaining genetic diversity in plants and ensuring adequate fruit and seed production for crops, wildflowers, shrubs, and trees. Pollinators provide pollination services for wild plants and many of our crop species too – one in three bites of food is due to cross-pollination by pollinators. In fact, almost 80% of the 1,400 crop plants grown around the world require pollination by animals. Visits from bees and other pollinators also result in larger, more flavorful fruits and higher crop yields1.
Without pollinators, the human race and all of earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would not survive. Pollination is not just fascinating natural history. It is an essential ecological survival function. In this forest, we’ll display plants, shrubs, trees that attract those pollinators and provide a habitat for these little important creatures.