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Nebraska Plants & Pollinators

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Nebraska Plants & Pollinators DON’T FORGET PLANT BIODIVERSITY! Growing many kinds of flowers is one way to support beneficial insects that pollinate our LARVAL HOSTS crops, gardens and wild places. Here are examples of common Nebraska pollinators (butterflies, bees, beetles, Many insects (especially butterflies) moths, wasps and flies) and the native blooms they depend on for pollen and nectar through the seasons. lay their eggs on only certain plants. When they hatch, the larvae eat on the plant’s leaves for food before spring summer autumn morphing into adults. Large Beardtongue & Eastern Carpenter Bee Leadplant & Small Carpenter Bees Aromatic Aster & Blue-Green Sweat Bees Golden Alexanders & Black Swallowtail Penstemon grandiflorus & Xylocopa virginica Amorpha canescens & Ceratina sp. Symphyotrichum oblongifolium & Augochlorella sp. Zizia aurea & Papilio polyxenes plantnebraska.org A shiny, mostly Ceratina visit Asters provide black body Amorpha for valuable, late- distinguishes pollen as well season nectar this bee from as nectar, for sweat bees. its cousin, the gleaning both bumble bee. protein and more at carbohydrates. ADULT Eastern Columbine & Dark Sweat Bees New Jersey Tea & Syrphid Fly Wichita Mountains Goldenrod & Soldier Beetle Cream Wild Indigo & Orange Sulphur Aquilegia canadensis & Lasioglossum sp. Ceanothus americanus & Allograpta obliqua Solidago ‘Wichita Mountains’ & Podabrus flavicollis Baptisia bracteata & Colias eurytheme This type of tiny The second most Beetles like this one sweat bee is effective are important able to collect pollinators on pollinators, and pollen from the prairie are are commonly these trumpet- flies, like this found on like flowers. syrphid fly. goldenrod. ADULT Wild Cherries, Plums & Ichneumonids Bergamot Beebalm & Bee Fly Dotted Blazing Star & Monarch Butterfly Butterfly Milkweed & Small Milkweed Bug Prunus sp. & Lissonota sp. Monarda fistulosa & Systoechus vulgaris Liatris punctata & Danaus plexippus Asclepias tuberosa & Lygaeus kalmii This beneficial Bee flies collect Monarchs only wasp, which nectar from feed on nectar, generally can’t Monarda with but from sting, visits their proboscis a variety Prunus flowers while hovering of sources for nectar. over the flower. including Liatris. ADULT Currants, Gooseberries & Bumble Bees Buttonbush & Sunflower Bee Blue Pitcher Sage & Silver Spotted Skipper Willows & Mourning Cloak Ribes sp. & Bombus sp. Cephalanthus occidentalis & Svastra obliqua Salvia azurea & Epargyreus clarus Salix sp. & Nymphalis antiopa The nectar and Although known A long proboscis pollen of Ribes for visiting allows silver flowers attract sunflowers, spotted emerging this bee visits skippers to visit bumble bee buttonbush for this Salvia for queens. nectar. nectar. Nebraska plants & pollinators plants & Nebraska ADULT Insect Photo Credits: Jim Kalisch, UNL Arthopod Library EMERGE NEST FORAGE OVERWINTER Wait until mid-April to tidy up Leave a wild spot to host nesting Grow plants like aster, sedum Try to leave the garden undis- the garden so as to not disturb insects. By mid-summer, many and goldenrod to provide for- turbed until spring so pollinators overwintering insects. Many pollinators lay eggs on plant age when it might otherwise be have safe places to hibernate. pollinators awaken from hiber- leaves or in dead wood, hollow scarce. Most pollinator larvae Most spend the winter in an in- nation in spring from dead wood, stems, unmown grass or in the and adults are active during au- active state, often tucked away in hollow stems, unmown grass or ground, depending on the spe- tumn and spend their time for- hidden wild spots like tall grass, bare ground, depending on the cies. Adults and newly-hatched aging on late-blooming flowers. shrubs, trees or fence posts, or species. They look for mates and larvae forage on nectar and pol- Some species have morphed into in piles of leaves or sticks, dead forage on spring flowers. len from summer flowers. adults by this time. wood or in the ground. winter spring autumn summer Save trees from Try to water only in Wait until late spring Have some fun calendar Reserve some bare herbicide damage by drought, but it’s good for yard clean-up as making a bee hotel or a dirt in a sunny spot for not spraying for weeds to have a wet spot for pollinators look for safe scrapbook of pollinator ground-nesting bees. as woodies leaf out. butterflies. spots to overwinter. photos from the yard. Push mulch away from Cut or pull tall, Keep the yard safe Time to get rid of plant crowns. Keep it less unsightly weeds as they from pesticides like bug persistent weeds while than 2” deep for better bloom to control their killer sprays and tree they’re green and native plant vigor. populations. injections. plants are dormant. Leave dead stems Cut back last year’s Make room for Mulch with leaves or and leaves standing stems for a tidy look, a wild corner as lawn clippings to keep to protect hibernating but leave 12-16” for pollinators mate, nest weeds down until the pollinators. hibernating pollinators. and forage. garden matures. POLLINATOR HABITAT FOOD COVER SAFE FROM PESTICIDES This garden is home to bees, butterflies and other pollinators. plantnebraska.org Emerging mason Mating eastern Tachnid fly eggs on Ground bee nests in Hawk moth Soldier beetle Foraging paper Pearl crescent pupa Bumblebee queen pollinator garden bee. tailed blues. a caterpillar. a lawn. caterpillar larva. feeding on pollen. wasp. in a chrysalis. burrow..
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