Nature Net News
Your source for nature tips & tricks
July 2009
Pollination Station
"How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!"
Issac Watts
Dear Reader, What's the buzz about pollinators? Plenty! From pollinating your favorite flower to making sure you have fruits and vegetables, these tireless workers in nature's food chain are everywhere! Find out who, how and why in this month's Nature Net News. And, while you're at it, take a stroll through Olbrich Gardens, or your favorite outdoor spot, to enjoy the fruits of their labor! Enjoy! Kathe & Sarah |
While pollination is important to the growth of most plants, not all plants need pollination to reproduce. Some plants use wind to spread their pollen, and ferns and mushrooms don't pollinate at all! Instead, they release spores into the air.
Pollination is vital to our survival and the existence of nearly all ecosystems on Earth. Eighty percent of the world's crop plants depend on pollination. Pollinators, almost all of which are insects, are indispensable partners for an estimated 1 out of every 3 mouthfuls of food, spices and condiments we eat, and the beverages we drink. They are essential to the fibers we use, the medicines that keep us healthy, and more than half of the world's diet of fats and oils. Insect pollinators, including honey bees, pollinate products amounting to $20 billion annually in the U.S. alone.
What to Do This Month:
Check out the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign to see how you can help keep our pollinators pollinating!
Check out the National Academy's Plants for Pollinators Site to find flowers to create a bloom-filled garden that will attract tons of pollinators!
Tricks of the Trail for Parents:
Pollinator Watching
Pollinator watching can happen at anytime, anywhere! Simply find a place filled with flowers, be it in a garden or on trees, sit down, and watch! During the day you can see bees, butterflies, and a variety of other bugs. If you go at twilight, you can see moths, bats, and mosquitoes--so don't forget to bring your bug spray!
Instant Outdoor Expert:
Pollinators Among Us!
Pollinators are usually insects, but can also be animals or birds.
One well-known pollinating bird is the hummingbird. They prefer flowers with a high content of sugar in their nectar. They also eat spiders and insects because sugar-filled nectar doesn't have a lot of protein.
Some important pollinating animals include: bats, possums, and humans! Instead of a proboscis or snout, a human can use a small brush or cotton swab to move pollen, or simply tap or shake blossoms to release the pollen for self-pollinating flowers.
The most common insects are bees and butterflies, but flies, ants, and mosquitoes help pollinate as well! One interesting fact is that only female mosquitoes drink blood--male mosquitoes drink nectar!
Featured Nature Net Site
Nature Craft
Olbrich Botanical Gardens
Stroll through 16 acres of outdoor display gardens including the Rose Garden, Thai Pavilion and Garden, Sunken Garden, and Perennial Garden.
Enjoy a tropical paradise in Olbrich's Bolz Conservatory, a glass pyramid filled with exotic plants and flowers, small birds, a rushing waterfall, and fragrant orchids.
Outdoor Gardens are open daily and are free to all. Admission to the Bolz Conservatory is $1 per person and free to all on Wednesday and Saturday from 10 am to noon.
But this month you must experience the magnificence of free-flying butterflies while strolling through the tropical Bolz Conservatory. Live butterflies emerge from chrysalises daily in the Conservatory, including low-flyers like the playful yellow and black striped zebras and bright orange julias. More than a dozen species of butterflies, native to both Wisconsin and the more tropical areas of the southern United States can be seen at various times during the exhibit.
Tickets:
$5: adults
$3: children ages 3 - 12
Free: ages 2 and under
Free: Olbrich Botanical Society members
Though these lovely flowers and pollinators aren't real,
they are a fun craft for all!
What you need: coffee filter, washable markers,
plate, spritz bottle
(optional), pipe cleaners, yellow and black mini pom poms, googly eyes
(optional), glue or glue gun.
1. Take a coffee filter, place on plate and color with markers.
2. Squirt water (4-5 times) on coffee filter to make colors run. Try different angles for different looks and remember that a little water goes a long way! You can always add more if you desire a more marbled effect. Watch the colors run to create a totally new pattern!
3. While coffee filter dries (about a half hour), take black and yellow pom poms and glue to create a bumble bee body. Use a pipe cleaner to create antenna and add googly eyes if you want them. You can also substitute colored beads instead of pom poms.
4. Once coffee filter is dry, cut off 2-3 inches off a pipe cleaner and stick the longer end through the center of the filter.
5. Take the end that will be in the center of the flower and roll about 1 inch into a tight ball. This makes sure your flower won't fall off.
6. Scrunch your coffee filter around the pipe cleaner and then take the small part of the pipe cleaner from step 4 and wrap around the base of the coffee filter and pipe cleaner.
7. Add your pollinating bee to the flower and
you're done!
www.dltk-holidays.com)
Suggested Reading:
"Butterfly, Flutterby" by Annie Horwood (preschool)
"Little Bee: Finger Puppet Book" by Chronicle Books (preschool)
"Butterflies: Pollinators and Nectar-Sippers" by Adele Richardson (4-8)
"Jack's Garden" by Henry Cole (4-8)
"Caterpillars, Bugs & Butterflies" by Mel Boring (4-8)
"The Reason for a Flower" by Ruth Heller (4-8)
"Bees and Butterflies" by Inc. Penton Overseas (4-8)
"Butterflies" by Sara Nelson
(9-12)
"The Forgotten Pollinators" by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan (teen
and up)
"Pollinator Conservation Handbook: A Guide to Understanding, Protecting, and Providing Habitat for Native Pollinator Insects" by the Xerces Society
(adult)
