Unsung Pollinators of the U.S.

For life to continue on this planet living things need to reproduce themselves. You are a reproduction of your parents! Many plants produce seeds to reproduce themselves. For a seed to form, pollen, which contains plant sperm, has to get to an egg usually in another plant of the same kind (some plants pollinate themselves!). Unlike humans, plants can’t move around to find a mate, so they enlist other living beings: bees, flies, butterflies, moths, beetles, birds, bats, and lizards to move for them. These helpers are called pollinators because they move the pollen for the plants. 

Flowers contain the reproductive parts of plants. They often contain nectar which pollinators like to eat, as a way to attract the pollinators. When the pollinator gets the nectar, pollen from the plant sticks to part of the pollinator’s body. When they go to  another plant for nectar, the pollen drops from their body to the new flower and can fertilize the new plant. Because flowering plants (angiosperms) and pollinators have been around for 130 million years, they are thought to have co-evolved with each other. Some plants have specialized flower shapes, smells or colors to attract certain pollinators.(1)