By Gail Dugelby, SAWS Conservation Consultant Another spring is upon us. If you’re thinking about all the ways to make your yard and garden beautiful one of the most important factors of successful garden is the presence of pollinators.

Bees are the most successful pollinators. While the European honeybee (Apis melifera) is vital to so many of our agricultural crops, the United States has about 4,000 native bees. And Texas has somewhere between 1,100 to 1,500 species of native bees. These bees are the primary pollinators of our native flowering plants and trees. But they aren’t the only ones.

We’re blessed with an array of unique and specialized pollinators including wasps, butterflies, moths, beetles, birds, ants, bats, flies and even mosquitoes — native pollinators that have had thousands of years to co-evolve with our native plants and become highly specialized and dependent on each other.

Each group has exclusive needs when it comes to flower types. The traits and characteristics of different flowers, such as shape, color, ultraviolet patterns, fragrance, nectar and pollen amounts, are collectively known as pollinator syndromes (distinctive characteristics to attract specific pollinators). Let’s explore!

Bees are attracted to flowers that are purple, violet, blue and yellow. This doesn’t mean they ignore other colors, just that these colors attract them the most. The flower shape that suits bees best is an open, shallow, bowl-shaped flower with a good landing pad. Bumbles are not the most graceful flyers or landers. Bees can see ultraviolet light and ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence photography can help humans see what bees see. There are stripes or dots on the petals that are bright and lit up in UV light when the flower needs pollinating.

There are so many great native flowering plants that are perfect for our native bees. Here I’ve listed just a few by each plant’s blooming season.

Spring: Agarita, baby blue eyes, Texas redbud, pink evening primrose, zexmenia
Summer: Autumn sage, Texas sage, kidneywood, mealy blue sage, coneflower, goldenrod
Fall: Fall aster, blue mistflower, goldeneye
Winter: Rosemary, loquat, shrimp plant

Butterflies and moths are both in the Lepidoptera family but have different preferences when it comes to pollinator syndromes. Butterflies are attracted to bright colors of orange, red, yellow, pink and purple. And they prefer shallow, open flowers with ample nectar and good landing pads. Being nocturnal, moths are attracted to white, cream-colored flowers that reflect the moonlight and stand out at night. They can also be attracted to light pinks, pale reds and violets if the flower is easily visible at night. Therefore, moths are prone to pollinate night bloomers.

Choose the following native plants to attract butterflies to your yard:

Tropical sage

Coneflower

Winecup

Verbena

Gaillardia

Mistflowers

Goldenrod

Salvias (Sage)

Passionflower

Texas lantana

Being nocturnal, moths are attracted to white, cream-colored flowers that reflect the moonlight and stand out at night. They can also be attracted to light pinks, pale reds and violets if the flower is easily visible at night. Therefore, moths are prone to pollinate night bloomers.

A tubular shaped flower also suits the moth. With its long proboscis (tongue-like structure) moths drink up these flowers’ copious dilute nectar. Moths also have an extraordinary sense of smell, which they do with their antennae, feet and palps. So, fragrance is also part of the moth’s pollinator syndrome.

Good plant choices for helping moths include:

Moonflowers

Morning glory

Angel trumpet

Datura

Yuccas

Evening primrose

Hummingbirds are also specialized pollinators. Their long, slender bill acts as a probe to reach into tubular flowers, while their forked, tube-like tongue functions like a straw to suck up nectar.

They strongly prefer flowers in the red and pink family. These tubular flowers will have ample deeply hidden nectar, and fragrance is not a factor. As they drink nectar, pollen grains stick to their feathers and beak, which are then carried to the next flower they visit, facilitating pollination. Many flowers have evolved to have long, tubular shapes and bright colors specifically to attract hummingbirds.

Here are some of the best choices for Central Texas if you want to see hummingbirds:

Texas buckeye

Firecracker plant

Flame acanthus

Crossvine

Turks cap

Indian paintbrush

Trumpet vine

Coralbean

Red yucca

Esperanza

Pride of Barbados

We also have beetle pollinators. Though not the most graceful, beetles usually eat the pollen, nectar and petals of the flower and inadvertently rub around in the pollen, mixing it from flower to flower, so pollination happens. Beetles do have a very long history with magnolia pollination. For millions of years, magnolia flowers have been primarily pollinated by beetles, as they evolved alongside these insects and have adapted features like tough petals to withstand beetle feeding habits.

Beetles prefer big, shallow, open, bowl-shaped flowers with a large landing pad, good fragrance and ample pollen. There are about 400,000 described species of beetles, but there are likely millions more. Beetles are the largest order of insects and make up about 25% of all known animal species.

If you have an affection for beetles, then plant the following flowering plants:

Magnolia (caution – not a low water-need species)
Goldenrod
Yarrow
Sunflower family
Spirea

There are many more interesting pollinators — both here and across the world. For planting flowering plants for pollinators in our area, stick to native and drought tolerant species. The pollinators will be very appreciative!

Gail Dugelby is a SAWS conservation consultant with deep roots in San Antonio and the Hill Country. She spent her youth climbing trees, playing in the Guadalupe River, and exploring the outdoors. This drives her passion for nature and our diverse environment, especially our most precious natural resource — water. Given the choice, she would be outside all the time.