Unsung Pollinators of the U.S.
Conservation begins with you!
What is my role?
What I do for the environment
A “buzz” word I hear in conservation is biodiversity. This can refer to every living thing on earth - including you! It can also mean all the species in a particular region or ecosystem - the whole community of living and nonliving things in a place. As a bumble bee, I am a keystone species. This means, if I am removed, whole ecosystems where I live will change and can even collapse. I pollinate flowers which make fruits and seeds that lots of other animals - like birds and bears need to survive. The seeds make new flowers. So I help protect biodiversity! [9)
"Rusty Patched Bumble Bee" by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region is marked under CC PDM 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
"Rusty Patched Bumble Bee" by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region is marked under CC PDM 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
What I do for you
We bumble bees also pollinate food that humans eat like: potatoes, peppers, pumpkins, zucchinis, blueberries and cranberries. We are the only pollinators of tomatoes. All of these plants need to be "buzz" pollinated. This is where a bumble bee holds onto a flower and uses their flight muscles to vibrate the flower.
Native bees and other insects provide pollination worth $3 billion a year in the United States. [9]
See Buzz Pollination in Action!
Watch the Smithsonian channel's video on "buzz" pollination.
Thinking question:
Why might some flowers require "buzz" pollination to release their pollen?
