Friday, March 11

Praise for the Pollinators
 
Why should you care about a tiny, little insect you can barely see? Because insects pollinate the plants that give us food. Without them, we would go hungry. Literally. Besides some of the obvious pollinators like bees, you might be surprised at exactly who is out there pollinating so we can have a nice dinner on the table come six o'clock. 
 
Slugs, of all things, pollinate plants. As do, if you can believe it, lemurs. Lemurs? It's true. On the island of Madagascar, they climb forty feet high into traveler's trees, pull open flowers with very tough outsides, stick their faces in and thereby carry the pollen around on their snouts pollinating flowers for the rest of the day. Bird's foot violet, available in our online plant nursery, is often pollinated by skippers, long tongued bees and smaller butterflies.