bee lawns and pollinator gardens · habitat gardening for bees, using targeted ornamental plants,...

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© 2011 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.

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Bee Lawns and Pollinator GardensCreation, Design, Plant Choice and Sustainability

Mary Hockenberry MeyerUniversity of Minnesota Professor And Extension Horticulturist

[email protected]

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IAN LANE, GRAD STUDENT • Establishment, seedi

ng rates, and bee

numbers

• Arboretum

demonstration plots

in 2015

• Long term

demonstration plots

at new Arboretum

Bee Center

Sam Bauer photo

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BEE LAWNS

• Fine

fescues, especially

hard fescue

• Kentucky bluegrass

• Dutch white clover

(Trifolium repens)

• Selfheal, healall

Native (Prunella

vulgaris)

• Creeping Thyme

(Thymus

serphyllum)

• Bird‟s foot trefoil

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Most pollinator plants need to grow more than 3” tall to flower.

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Can homeowners accept this look in their lawns? Do we value

ecological landscapes or even know them when we see them?

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Accepting forbs in a lawn requires a shift in thinking about “good

neighbors and good citizens”.

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Hampton Court Flower Show, England, July 2011

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Bug hotels; nesting boxes for bees and other insects.

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Bug Hotel in London

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Native plants

Non-native plants

Weeds

Native bunch grasses

No pesticides

Open sunny location

Open soil nesting sites

Minimum of 8 species overall

Minimum of 3 species in bloom at any one time

Early March through late October blooms

COMPONENTS OF A POLLINATOR GARDEN

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BEES ARE COMMON IN URBAN LANDSCAPES

Author No. Species CityMatteson 50 New York suburbs

Ascher/ Matteson 100+ New York City

Frankie 70 Berkeley, CA

Fenter/LeBuhn 70 San Francisco, CA

Cane/Minckley 62 Tucson, AZ

Tonietto (green roofs) 21 Chicago, IL

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BRONX AND EAST HARLEM, NYC Matteson, K. and G. Langellotto.2010. Determinates of inner city butterfly and bee

species richness. Urban Ecosyst (2010)13:333–347 DOI10.1007/s11252-010-0122-y.

“Bees are central place foragers that may nest within or near gardens, bee species

richness also included total garden area, canopy cover, and the presence of

wild/unmanaged area in the garden.

Generally, our findings indicate that sunlight and floral abundance are the

major factors limiting local pollinator diversity in this setting.

This suggests that rooftop and other “open” urban habitats might be managed

to increase local pollinator diversity, even if seemingly “isolated” within heavily

developed neighborhoods.”

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CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND• Native or Exotic? Double or Single? Evaluating Plants for Pollinator-friendly

Gardens Sarah A. Corbet et al., 2001. Annals of Botany.

• Examined British native plant species Salvia pratensis, Stachys palustris, S.

officinalis, Lythrum salicaria, Linaria vulgaris, the non-native Calendula

officinalis, Petunia × hybrida, Salvia splendens, and the possibly introduced

Saponaria officinalis.

• All the British species studied were nectar-rich and recommended for pollinator-

friendly gardens.

The exotic Salvia splendens, presumably coevolved with hummingbirds in the

Neotropics, has such deep flowers that British bees cannot reach the nectar except

by crawling down the corolla.

With a secretion rate approaching 300 μg sugar per flower h−1and little depletion by

insects, Salvia splendens accumulated high standing crops of nectar.

Salvia splendens, and single and double flowers of the two probably moth-pollinated

species Petunia × hybrida and Saponaria officinalis, received few daytime visits

despite abundant nectar.

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CAMBRIDGE ENGLAND• Compared single with double variants of Lotus corniculatus, Saponaria

officinalis, Petunia × hybrida and Calendula officinalis.

• “Except in Calendula, exotic or double flowers were little exploited by insect visitors.

probably due to the absence or scarcity of coevolved pollinators, coupled, in

double flowers, with the absence of nectar. In calendula where doubling involved a

change in the proportion of disc and ray florets rather than modification of

individual flower structure, double and single capitula had similar standing crops of

nectar.”

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SPINDLETOP RESEARCH FARM NEAR LEXINGTON, KY. Yeargan, K. and S. Colvin. 2009. Butterfly Feeding Preferences for Four Zinnia

Cultivars.

“We compared numbers and species of butterflies that visited four widely available

zinnia cultivars: Zinnia violacea Cav. (Zinnia elegans) „Lilliput‟, „Oklahoma‟, „State

Fair‟, and Zinnia marylandica „Pinwheel‟.

Mixed colors were used for all cultivars. Based on a total count of 2355

butterflies, representing 30 species, more than twice as many total butterflies

visited „Lilliput‟ than visited any of the other cultivars.

Also, a greater number of butterfly species visited „Lilliput‟ than visited any of the

other cultivars.“

1870‟s

introduction

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DAVIS, YOLO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

Shapiro, A. 2002. The California urban butterfly fauna is dependent on alien

plants. Biodiversity and Distributions. 8:31-40.

“the mainly native (butterfly) species commonly observed in gardens breed mostly

or entirely on alien plants, especially naturalized weeds.

Over 40% of the fauna has no known native hosts in the urban–suburban

environment. Were certain alien weeds to be eradicated or their abundance greatly

reduced, the urban-suburban butterfly fauna would disappear. This might be

regarded as an unfortunate, and perhaps intolerable, side-effect of such programs.”

“32 breeding butterfly species in the city appears rich; Twenty-nine of the 32

butterflies known to breed in Davis do so at least in part on alien plants,”

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Anise swallowtail “Papilio zelicaon, anise

swallowtail, vies with the

Monarch, Danaus plexippus, as

the butterfly most often reared for

the education and edification of

children in California.

If its weedy host

Foeniculum, fennel, is eradicated

from urban areas, as is

contemplated for San

Francisco, the butterfly will go

away. Is this a price we are willing

to pay?”

Non-native host:

fennel

DAVIS, CA SHAPIRO, 2002

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GRASSLANDS IN BOULDER COUNTY, COLORADO

Kearns, C.A. and D.M. Oliveras. 2009. Environmental factors affecting bee

diversity in urban and remote grassland plots in Boulder, Colorado. Journal

of Insect Conservation 13:655–665.

• Urbanization did not determine bee abundance or number of species

over 5 years

in grassland plots.

• Grazing regime and number of flowering plants were the most important

factors affecting bee abundance, especially for ground nesting bees.

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REVIEW OF 59 PUBLICATIONS Hernandez, J. ,G. Frankie, and R.Thorp. 2009. Ecology of Urban Bees: A Review of

Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Study. Cities and the Environment.

2:1, article 3, 15 pp. http://escholarship.bc.edu/cate/vol2/iss1/.

Three Findings:

Negative correlation between bee species richness and urban development

Increase in abundance of cavity-nesters in urban habitats

Scarcity of floral specialists

http://escholarship.bc.edu/cate/vol2/iss1/

http://escholarship.bc.edu/cate/vol2/iss1/

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EIGHT TALLGRASS PRAIRIES IN IOWA

Hines, H. and S. Hendrix. 2005. Bumble Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Diversity and Abundance in Tallgrass Prairie Patches: Effects of Local and

Landscape Floral Resources. Environmental Entomology, 34(6):1477-1484.

Assessed the influence of local and landscape floral resource diversity and

abundance on bumble bee (Bombus) diversity and abundance.

“Our results indicate that the floral and, perhaps, nesting resources of

grasslands within and surrounding tallgrass prairie habitat patches

are important for maintaining local bumble bee diversity and abundance.”

The more variety and abundance of flowering plants the more bumble

bees and the more diverse were the bees.

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SOUTHERN ENGLAND Hanley, M., M. Franco, S. Pichon, B. Darvill and D. Goulson. 2008. Breeding

system, pollinator choice and variation in pollen quality in British herbaceous

plants. Functional Ecology 2008, 22, 592–598 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-

2435.2008.01415.x

We quantified the pollen protein and amino acid content for 23 NW European

plant species. Pollen quality was compared with breeding system (facultative- vs.

obligate insect-pollinated). A subset of 18 plants was sampled from a single habitat.

For these we compared the proportion of pollen collection visits made by bumblebees

with the quality of pollen offered.

We found a significant association between pollen quality and reproductive

system; pollen of obligate insect-pollinated species contained higher protein

content. We also found a significant relationship with pollinator use; plants most

frequently visited by pollen-collecting bumblebees produced the highest-

quality pollen.

Bird‟s foot trefoil; bull thistle, red and white clover, viper‟s bugloss

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PLYMOUTH, SW ENGLAND Hanley, M., A. Awbi and M. Franco. 2014. Going Native? Flower use by

bumblebees in English urban gardens. Annals of Botany 113:799-806.

“Bees simply visited plants in proportion to flower availability.

Indeed, of the 6 most commonly visited garden plants, only one, Foxglove (Digitalis

purpurea – 6% of all bee visits) was a British native and only 3 in total of Palaearctic

(Northern Europe and Northern Asia) origin (including the most frequently visited

species, Campanula poscharskyana (20.6% of visits) which comes from the

Balkans).

The remaining „most visited‟ garden plants were from North America (Ceanothus 11%

of visits) and Asia (Deutzia spp 7% of visits), while the second most visited

plant, Hebe× francisciana (18% of visits), is a hybrid variety with parents from New

Zealand (H. speciosa) and South America (H. elliptica).”

Floral specialists are rare in urban areas, likely due to a lack of necessary plants.

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK

Fetridge, E.D., J.S. Ascher, and G.A. Langellotto. 2008. The bee fauna of residential

gardens in a suburb of New York City (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Annals of the

Entomolgical Society of America. 101(6):1067-1077.

21 residential gardens in suburban area surveyed for bees

110 species: 95% native, 50% solitary and 98% polylectic (generalists)

This bee community included 65% soil-nesting and 19% parasitic species

Resembled the bee fauna of a native preserve in the same region

Suburban landscapes in eastern North America have the potential to host

relatively diverse and intact bee communities.

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BERKELEY TO LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Frankie, G.W., R.W. Thorp, J.L. Hernandez, M. Rizzardi, B. Ertter, J.C. Pawalek, S.L.

Witt, M. Schindler, and V.A. Wojcik. 2009. Native bees are a rich natural resource

in urban California gardens. California Agriculture. 63(3):113-120.

A 3-year survey of bee pollinators in seven cities from Northern California to Southern

California. About 30 gardens visited per year. Found and Identified five bee families

and about 60 to 80 species in each city.

Results indicate that many types of urban residential gardens provide floral and

nesting resources for the reproduction and survival of bees, especially a diversity of

native bees.

Habitat gardening for bees, using targeted ornamental plants, can predictably

increase bee diversity and abundance, and provide clear pollination benefits.

Not all urban areas can be expected to support measurable populations of native

bees. The right plants must be available.

The study found that while many urban gardens include a high percentage of

nonnative ornamental plants, a great variety of native bees visit them.

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1. Attract Few or Limited Bee

Groups:

Yarrow

Erigeron

Pumpkins and squash

Wisteria

Salvia greggii cultivars & „Hot Lips‟

California poppy

2. Attract Diverse Native Bees in

Prominent Groups:

Gallardia x grandiflora cultivars

Annual sunflower

California goldenrod

Lavender

Russian sage

Salvia „Indigo Spires‟

Salvia uliginosa, bog sage

TARGET PLANTS: COMMON, KNOWN TO ATTRACT BEES

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3. Attract Diverse Native Bees, No

Prominent Groups

Aster x frikartii

Bidens ferulifolia cultivars

Coreopsis grandiflora

Cosmos bipinnatus and Cosmos

sulphureus

Erigeron glaucus CA native

Black-eyed Susan

Nepeta spp.

Rosemary

Salvia mellifera CA native

Asteraceae: pollen

and nectar

Lamiaceae: nectar

TARGET PLANTS: COMMON AND KNOWN TO ATTRACT BEES

Kickin‟ Blue Aster

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BRITISH MODEL BASED ON ILLINOIS 1929 DATA

Memmott, J. and N. Waser. 2002. Integration of alien plants into a native flower–

pollinator visitation web. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (269): 2395–2399.

Analysis of “how alien plant species integrate themselves into a native flower

visitation web”

“Historical records for a community in central USA show that 456 plant species

received visits from 1429 insect and 1 hummingbird species, yielding 15,265 unique

interactions.

Aliens comprised 12.3% of all plant species, whereas only a few insects were alien

(honey bee, cabbage butterfly).

On average, the flowers of alien plants were visited by significantly fewer insect or

bird species than those of native plants. Most of these visitors were

generalists, visiting many other plant species.

The web of interactions between flowers and visitors was less richly connected for

alien plants than for natives; nonetheless, aliens were well integrated into the

native web.”

Dandelions, clover, alfalfa were likely on alien plant list.

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Plant diversity is

important

Plant flowers with

pollen and nectar

Provide nesting

habitats in your

garden

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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Should we start our own Minnesota data collection for pollinators?

Contact me: [email protected]

bee lawns and pollinator gardens · habitat gardening for bees, using targeted ornamental plants,...

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