Most people don't understand how much of our food requires pollination and the importance of the pollinators. Pollination is required for the production of most fruit and vegetables. There are a few vegetables that are wind pollinated, such as corn and spinach, and some that don't need to be pollinated like kale and carrots. But, over 75% of all flowering plants are pollinated by animals.1
The image below shows the difference between proper pollination and poor pollination.
image credit: UC Berkeley
Who are the Pollinators?
Many animals play a part in the symbiotic relationship with plants, including:
- ants
- bats
- bees
- beetles
- birds
- butterflies
- flies
- moths
- wasps
There are even some large animal pollinators such as lemurs, honey possums and geckos.
image credit: USDA Forest Service
Why is the honeybee so important?
All pollinators are important, but the honeybee has become increasingly important because of the changes in our agriculture methods. The honeybee is the only pollinator that can be managed in large quantities to meet the needs of our large monocrop operations. One can argue it is also the reason the honeybees are facing so many issues, but we will save that for a future discussion.
image credit: Bee Culture
None of the other pollinators exist in large social colony that can be managed by humans to meet the pollination needs of these large monocrops. Many of these pollinators are better adapted to pollinate than the honeybee. For example, the bumblebee has a longer tongue and can get into flowers that honeybees can't. Bumblebees also can fly at a lower temperature than honeybees, so there are days in early spring that bumblebees will be pollinating and the honeybees aren't.
Another interesting difference between honeybees and bumblebees is that honeybees are mono-floral, meaning they will only collect nectar and pollen from one plant species at a time. While the bumblebee is poly-floral, meaning it will collect from any species of plant at anytime. You can often watch a bumblebee in your garden going back and forth between different plants. This trait may seem well suited for our mono-crop agriculture, but it has the possibility of being problematic as well. Take early spring when dandelions are in bloom and apple trees start blooming. The orchard owners pays to have honeybees bought into his orchard for a few weeks during that critical time when pollination is required for the trees to bear fruit. If there is a high population of dandelions in the orchard, there is the possibility that the honeybees will work the dandelions and ignore the apple trees. Without pollination the orchard will not produce a profitable crop. This often leads to mass usage of weed killers.
How Does it Affect You?
One in three bites of the food you eat is the result of insect pollination2. Just take a minute to let that sink in.......
South west China has already seen a drastic decline in wild bees due to excessive pesticide use and a lack of natural habitat. This has forced farmers to hand-pollinate their apple and pear trees. This may be possible for high value crops, but there are not enough humans in the world to pollinate all of our crops by hand.
image credit: chinadialogue.net
Neither plant nor pollinator populations can exist in isolation – should one disappear, the other is one generation away from it's demise.
Hopefully you are now better aware of the importance of the honeybee and all pollinators. Our future depends on them and it appears their future depends on us to change our ways.
I'll close with a photo from Whole Foods that visually tells the story of what is in store if we don't support the wellbeing of the honeybee.
image credit: Whole Foods
Interested in Beekeeping?
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Check out the previous post in the Beekeeping for Everyone! series Beekeeping For Everyone! - Introduction
Also check out these favorites:
Why You Should NEVER EVER Kill Honeybees Living in Your House
The Mysteries of a Bee Beard Revealed!!
citations
1 - U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
2 - Bee Better Certified
Beekeep On!
@bushkill