Around the Garden - Perfect for Pollinators

Horticulture

6 Apr

Written By Sam Cooper

This page is brought to you by the Southwater Horticultural Society

By now, there should be an adundance of forage for our pollinators and it’s important to remember that trees and shrubs are equally important sources. Field Maple, Horse Chestnut, Hawthorn, Holly, as well as apple, pear, plum and cherry will be coming into flavour. Shrubs - Beberis , Ceanothus, Cornus Mas (Cornelian cherry), Hebe, Mahonia, Pieris and Ribes (Flowering Currant) are just a few. As for flowers, Arabis and Aubretia, Doronicum (Leopard’s Bane), Hellebore and Pulmonaria (Lungwort) are others you may not have thoughts of. If you have a pond, the beautiful golden Calthus Palustris (Marsh Marigolds) will glow at the margins.

The importance of having a wide variety is to ensure that there is something for all the different insects which visit. For instance, the nectaries of primroses are down a deep tube. The longer tongued Bee Fly - Bombillius Major - can reach them with ease but you will not see honeybees on a primrose.

In April, one strange looking flying insect you may come across is St Mark’s Fly, so named as it often appears around the 25th of the month, St Mark’s Day. Male St. Mark’s flies are shiny black, around 12mm in length with clear wings, large eyes and long dangly legs. An amazing thing about their eyes is that they are divided by a groove and have separate connections to the brain, allowing them to look out for females through the upper eye part, while using the lower to keep a stable distance from the ground and hover in the same position.

You can often come across big swarms flying slowly, up and down, at around head height, trying to attract females which are bigger with smoky brown wings and much smaller eyes and legs. In the adult stage, they are nectar feeders and so pollinators while in the larval stages they feed on rotting vegetation, helping to break it down into compost.