Selecting Plants for Pollinators A Regional Guide for Farmers, Land Managers, and Gardeners In the Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province Including the states of: Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina And parts of Alabama, Maryland, and Mississippi, Texas, NAPPC and Virginia Table of CONTENTS Why Support Pollinators? 4 Getting Started 5 Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province 6 Meet the Pollinators 8 Plant Traits 10 Developing Plantings 1 Farms 13 Public Lands 14 Home Landscapes 15 Bloom Periods 16 Plants That Attract Pollinators 18 Habitat Hints 0 This is one of several guides for Checklist different regions in the United States. We welcome your feedback to assist us in making the future Resources and Feedback 3 guides useful. Please contact us at [email protected] Selecting Plants for Pollinators Selecting Plants for Pollinators A Regional Guide for Farmers, Land Managers, and Gardeners In the Ecological Region of the Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province Including the states of: Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina And parts of Alabama, Maryland, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia a NAPPC and Pollinator Partnership™ Publication This guide was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the C.S. Fund, the Plant Conservation Alliance, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management with oversight by the Pollinator Partnership™ (www.pollinator.org), in support of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC–www.nappc.org). Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province 3 Why support pollinators? IN THEIR 1996 BOOK, THE FORGOTTEN POLLINATORS, Buchmann and Nabhan estimated that animal pollinators are needed for the reproduction “Farming feeds of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Each of us depends on these industrious pollinators in a practical way to provide us with the wide range of foods we eat. In addition, pollinators are part of the the world, and intricate web that supports the biological diversity in natural ecosystems that helps sustain our quality of life. Abundant and healthy populations of pollinators can improve fruit set we must remember and quality, and increase fruit size. In farming situations this increases production per acre. In the wild, biodiversity increases and wildlife food sources increase. that pollinators Apples, tomatoes, citrus, melons, and strawberries are some of the crops raised in the Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province that rely on honey bees and native bees for pollination. Domestic honey bees pollinate are a critical approximately $10 billion worth of crops in the U.S. each year. Unfortunately, the numbers of both native pollinators and domesticated link in our food bee populations are declining. They are threatened by habitat loss, disease, and the excessive and inappropriate use of pesticides. The loss of commercial bees to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has highlighted how severe the issues of proper hive management are to reduce stresses caused systems.” by disease, pesticide use, insufficient nutrition, and transportation practices. -- Paul Growald, Currently, the pollination services that the commercial beekeeping industry Co-Founder, provides are receiving much needed research and conservation resources. The efforts to understand the threats to commercial bees should help us Pollinator partnership understand other pollinators and their roles in the environment as well. It is imperative that we take immediate steps to help pollinator populations thrive. The beauty of the situation is that by supporting pollinators’ need for habitat, we support our own needs for food and support diversity in the natural world. Thank you for taking time to consult this guide. By adding plants to your landscape that provide food and shelter for pollinators throughout their active seasons and by adopting pollinator friendly landscape practices, you can make a difference to both the pollinators and the people that rely on them. Laurie Davies Adams Executive Director Pollinator Partnership 4 Selecting Plants for Pollinators Getting Started THIS REGIONAL GUIDE IS just one created as a management tool species include evergreen oaks and in a series of plant selection tools and is used to predict responses members of the laurel and magnolia designed to provide information to land management practices families. Tree trunks are often on how individuals can influence throughout large areas. This guide covered in moss at higher elevations, pollinator populations through addresses pollinator-friendly land and a well-developed lower layer choices they make when they farm management practices in what is of vegetation, including tree ferns, a plot of ground, manage large known as the Outer Coastal Plain shrubs, and herbaceous plants is tracts of public land, or plant a Mixed Province. often present. garden. Each of us can have a Portions of eleven states make Long before there were homes positive impact by providing the up the 173,800 square miles of and farms in this area, the original, essential habitat requirements for this generally flat province with natural vegetation provided pollinators including food, water, elevations ranging from sea level to continuous cover and adjacent shelter, and enough space to allow around 300 feet. The topography is feeding opportunities for wildlife, pollinators to raise their young. primarily gently sloping and made including pollinators. In choosing Pollinators travel through the up of many slowly moving streams, plants, aim to create habitat for landscape without regard to lakes, marshes, and swamps. pollinators that allow adequate food property ownership or state Average annual temperatures are shelter, and water sources. Most boundaries. We’ve chosen to use mild, ranging from 60° to 70°F. pollinators have very small home R.G. Bailey’s classification system This moist, green province is ranges. You can make a difference to identify the geographic focus characterized by rainfall throughout by understanding the vegetation of this guide and to underscore the year, between 40 to 60 inches patterns of the farm, forest, or the connections between climate annually, creating in many areas neighbor’s yard adjacent to you and vegetation types that affect what is known as a temperate and by making planting choices the diversity of pollinators in the rainforest. This type of rainforest that support the pollinators’ need environment. has fewer species of vegetation for food and shelter as they move Bailey’s Ecoregions of the United than its tropical counterpart and through the landscape. States, developed by the United therefore has larger populations States Forest Service, is a system of individual species. Common Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province 5 Understanding the outer coastal plain mixed Province n This region is designated number 232 in the Baileys’ Ecosystem Provinces. To see a map of the provinces go to: www.fs.fed.us/colorimagemap/ecoreg1_provinces.html n Not sure about which bioregion you live or work in? Go to www.pollinator.org and click on Ecoregion Locator for help. n 173,800 square miles within 11 states. n Primarily flat or gently sloping and characterized by marshes, swamps, lakes, and slow-moving streams. n Elevations ranging from sea level to around 300 feet. n Average annual temperature range from 60° to 70°F. n Average year-round precipitation between 40-60 inches. n USDA Hardiness Zones 7a-9b (1990 version). Characteristics n Dominated by evergreen oaks, laurels, magnolias. n Usually a well-developed lower layer of growth including tree ferns, small palms, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, including many lianas and epiphytes. n Trees are often covered in moss at higher elevations where there are clouds and fog. n Gum and cypress are abundant along the Atlantic Coast. n Subclimax pine forests dominate upland areas, and usually have an understory of grasses and sedges called savannas. 6 Selecting Plants for Pollinators The Outer Coastal Plain “Adding native plantings in riparian areas Mixed Province to improve pollinator habitat makes includes the states of: Delaware, Florida, Georgia, sense in advancing our family farm’s Louisiana, North Carolina, conservation and economic objectives, South Carolina enhancing beneficial wildlife and And parts of: improving pollination in our orchard Alabama, Maryland, Mississippi, and garden.” Texas, and Virginia --Lee McDaniel, Farmer and President, National Association of Conservation Districts Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province Meet the Pollinators Who are the underground. Various species are solitary while others form loose pollinators? colonies. Solitary bees include carpenter bees Bees (Xylocopa spp.), which nest in wood; Bees are well documented digger, or polyester bees (Colletes pollinators in the natural and spp.), which nest underground; agricultural systems of the Outer leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.), Coastal Plain Mixed Province which prefer dead trees or branches Province. A wide range of crops for their nest sites; and mason bees including apples, citrus, melons, (Osmia spp.), which utilize cavities strawberries, and tomatoes are just that they find in stems and dead a few plants that benefit from bee wood. Cactus bees (Diadasia spp.) pollinators. are also solitary ground nesters. Most of us are familiar with the colonies of honey bees that have Butterflies been the workhorses of agricultural Gardeners have been attracting pollination for years in the United Photos courtesy www.dangphoto.net courtesy Photos butterflies