what is pollination? - starke ayres garden centre

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What is pollination?

Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation (have babies). One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds.

Insects (such as bees, butterflies, ants, moths and beetles) as well as birds, bats and the wind take pollen between flowering plants, which means the plants can make seeds and reproduce (have babies) and could produce fruit or set seeds. Nearly 80% of all crop pollination comes from honeybees. making their presence in the garden extremely important.

To woo your sweetheart, we all know to give her flowers. The beautiful colors and aromas are sure to put her in a romantic mood. But did you realize that plants also use their flowers’ colors and aromas to attract pollinators for reproduction?

To avoid the competition with other flowers for daytime pollinators, some plants only bloom at night. Bats and moths will fly for miles following their aroma. Think of the millions of years spent in creating these adaptive relationships. Sometimes a plant can only be pollinated by one kind of insect or animal, and if that pollinator should die out, the plant would become extinct too.

Pollinators play a significant role in the production of over 150 food crops among them apples, alfalfa, almonds, blueberries, cranberries, kiwis, melons, pears, plums, and squash. For the most part, the general public is unaware of the decrease in pollinator populations and the implications this has for agricultural production.


What is a butterfly?

Butterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are the head, thorax (the chest), and abdomen (the tail end).

The butterfly's body is covered by tiny sensory hairs. The four wings and the six legs of the butterfly are attached to the thorax. The thorax contains the muscles that make the legs and wings move.

The life-cycle of a butterfly... Butterflies and moths undergo complete metamorphosis in which they go through 4 different life stages.

1) Egg - A butterfly starts its life as an egg, often laid on a leaf.

2) Larva - The larva (caterpillar) hatches from an egg and eats leaves or flowers almost constantly. The caterpillar molts (loses its old skin) many times as it grows. The caterpillar will increase up to several thousand times in size before pupating.

3) Pupa - It turns into a pupa (chrysalis); this is a resting stage.

4) Adult - A beautiful, flying adult emerges. This adult will continue the cycle.

Metamorphosis

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FLYING Butterflies are very good fliers. They have two pairs of large wings covered with colorful, iridescent scales in overlapping rows. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are the only insects that have scaly wings. The wings are attached to the butter-fly's thorax (mid-section). Veins support the delicate wings and nourish them with blood.

Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees. Butterflies sun themselves to warm up in cool weather. As butterflies age, the color of the wings fades and the wings become ragged.

DIET

Caterpillars spend most of their time eating leaves using strong mandibles (jaws). A caterpillar's first meal, however, is its own eggshell. A few caterpillars are meat-eaters; the larva of the carnivorous Harvester butterfly eats woolly aphids.

Butterflies and moths can only sip liquid food using a tube-like proboscis, which is a long, flexible "tongue." This proboscis uncoils to sip food, and coils up again into a spiral when not in use. Most butterflies live on nectar from flowers. Some butterflies sip the liquid from rotting fruits and a rare few prefer rotting animal flesh or animal fluids (the Harvester butterfly pierces the bodies of woolly aphids with its sharp proboscis and drinks the body fluids).

HABITAT

Butterflies are found all over the world and in all types of environments: hot and cold, dry and moist, at sea level and high in the mountains. Most butterfly species, however, are found in tropical areas, especially tropical rainforests.

Many butterflies migrate in order to avoid adverse environ-mental conditions (like cold weather). Butterfly migration is not well understood. Most migrate relatively short distances (like the Painted Lady, the Red Admiral, and the Common Buckeye), but a few (like some Monarchs) migrate thousands of miles.

proboscis


Buy and plant this seed mix

to attract butterfliesto your garden!

Butterflies will start to frequent your garden if you make a cosy, safe environment for them. To attract butterflies to your garden be sure to provide a warm sunny spot, shelter under shrubs and trees as well as nectar plants for food. If they like what they find, these attractive insects may even use your garden to breed.

PLANTS TO TRY 1. Lavender produces aromatic flowers during the summer months. It’s attractive scent is a great way of inviting butterflies to your garden. 2. The small scabious, Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue' is a long-flowering plant that produces lavender-blue flowers from late spring well into autumn.3. Butterfly bushes, Buddleja spp., produce cone-shaped clusters of tiny flowers in either purple, white, pink, or red - irresistible to butterflies!4. Pelargoniums are great at attracting butterflies, including the Emperor Swallowtail, Table Mountain Beauty and Garden Inspector butterflies. 5. The wild peach, Kiggelaria africana, attracts the acraea butterfly as its caterpillars feed on the foliage. 6. Selago spp. also attracts different kinds of butterflies with their masses of tubular flowers full of nectar. 7. The white ironwood, Vepris Lanceolata, attracts three different species of caterpillar belonging to the Swallowtail butterfly family, the most well-known being the Citrus Swallowtail butterfly.

PLANTS TO AVOID 1. Be careful of planting Alyssum and other members of the Brassica family as they attract the white cabbage butterfly which feeds on the foliage. 2. Exotic plants will indeed provide nectar, but the excess of butterflies will lay eggs on indigenous host plants.

BUTTERFLY FOSSILSButterfly fossils are rare. The earliest butterfly fossils are from the early Cretaceous period (the heyday of the dinosaurs), about 130 million years ago. Their development is closely linked to the evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) since both adult butterflies and caterpillars feed on flowering plants, and the adults are important pollinators of many flowering plants. Flowering plants also evolved during the Cretaceous period.

When visiting us in-store,lookout for these signs to indicate plants that attract pollinators.


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what is pollination? - starke ayres garden centre

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