This article is written by Morgan Bailey, a teen volunteer at the Monroe Science Center. 

June is Pollinator Month

What are pollinators?

Pollinators are living creatures that can take pollen from one plant and bring it to another. This helps fertilize plants, which allows them to produce fruits and seeds. 

What are some common pollinators?

Pollinators can range from birds, such as the hummingbird, to bugs and more. Other animals that can also serve as pollinators are beetles, bats, moths, ants, mosquitoes, butterflies, flies, and bees.

Why are pollinators so important?

The main purpose of pollinators is to transfer pollen from plant to plant, which stimulates plant reproduction, resulting in fruits and seeds. Without pollinators to fertilize plants, there would not be the same amount of diversity or fruit. Not only are these pollinators important to the plants, but they are important for us too! A lot of our food comes from flowering plants that produce fruit. If we didn’t have pollinators, we would not have very much fruit.

How can we protect them against threats?

Pollinators are facing many threats today. With increasing urbanization and new developments, pollinators are losing their habitats, food sources, and plants to pollinate. Monoculture farming also leaves pollinators with limited access to native plants on which they depend. Some of the bigger threats being posed to pollinators are the use of pesticides, climate change, parasites, and diseases. 

But even with these threats, there are still things we can do to help our pollinators. To help our pollinators, we can decrease the amount of pesticides we use and decrease our use of artificial light. We can also plant pollinator gardens, which use plants native to your region to attract pollinators and provide them with food that they need.

Where do botanists fit in with pollinators?

Botanists and pollinators have a very strong connection. Pollinators play a role in plant reproduction, which is an area that botanists study closely. Many botanists are also involved in the efforts to save pollinators, working on various solutions and strategies to protect them. 

Who are some of our most beloved botanists?

Botany has been traced back to the Neolithic Revolution, going as far back as ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Due to his work on plant classification and natural history, Aristotle is known as the “Father of Botany”. Following in his footsteps, some of the most famous botanists were Carl Linnaeus, George Washington Carver, Agnes Arber, and Gregor Mendel.

Join us at the Monroe Science Center in June as we celebrate and learn about pollinators. Make your own flapping butterfly and win a prize for completing the pollinator scavenger hunt.