Nurture Native Pollinators

The Europeans brought their honey bees to the Americas in the 1600s where they thrived on the abundance of flowering plant species. Since that time, honey bees have become critical to the production of many crops. Estimates show honey bees provide roughly 85% of the pollination activity for one-third of the U.S. food supply. Honey bees provide pollination for more than 50 major crops.

Given their critical importance to agriculture and the food supply, it is little wonder that news headlines in recent years have trumpeted the “disappearing” bees. The broad term given to this phenomenon is colony collapse disorder (CCD). Many theories have surfaced on the origins of CCD ranging from the outrageous to more science-based explanations. While researchers have not pinpointed the cause of CCD, most agree that it is likely a combination of factors killing off managed honey bee hives.
While native pollinators can’t replace the honey bee, they still play an important role in serving agriculture. Bumble bees (Bombus spp.), southeastern blueberry bee (Habropoda laboriosa), and leafcutting bees (Osmia spp) are examples of native bees that work in fields and groves to help pollinate crops. These three are particularly important to the state’s blueberry growers.

And, there are many more bee species that can help in the pollination game, with 4,000 in North America alone. In Florida, there are about 316 species of bees.

Researchers at UF/IFAS are trying to determine the significance of native pollinators’ impact on agricultural crops.
“Our study has focused heavily on the attractiveness of native Florida wildflowers to native bee pollinators,” says Dr. Jamie Ellis, an entomologist with UF/IFAS. “Consequently, we have learned about the wildflower preference of some native bee pollinators that are beneficial to Florida agriculture. This is important. Knowing what wildflowers certain native bees prefer allows us to begin to test how we can use those wildflowers to attract, retain, and sustain local bee populations.
“An important goal of our research is to make native, unmanaged bee pollinators more available to Florida growers. Our work has allowed us to generate best management practices for planting and maintaining wildflower plots adjacent to crop fields. This includes having information on what Florida wildflowers grow well under our conditions as well as attract a diverse array of bee pollinators.”