sunflowers - Pollinator Web

Musings from an Albuquerque Pollinator Paradise

If you’re reading this from New Mexico, the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Grand Opening of Visitor Center and 10th Birthday is on Saturday, September 10th, about a month away. I hope you’ll join us!

It’s summer in New Mexico and it’s hot and dry. Not as hot as Phoenix, thankfully! We received nice rain in June and July to break a massive dry spell – 65% of New Mexico is classified as ‘Severe Drought’ or worse, compared with 96% 3 months ago – but I’m always hoping for more. Most days the clouds build up and merely tease us with a chance of rain. Sunflowers are thriving, so my yard (and driveway) is a beautiful mess of yellow.

Prairie sunflowers, *Helianthus petiolaris*

I’ve dedicated more time to nocturnal critters this summer. It’s super rewarding to check the porch lights for moths and find a new one. So many cool insects hang out at night if you go and look.

Male Douglas Fir tussock moth, *Orgyia pseudotsugata*

There are plenty of diurnal critters too. Wasps (yes, wasps!) in all sizes and colors and a few new native bees for my yard list are among the highlights. It is lovely to sit outside with my camera, surrounded by nature. I enjoy watching bees collecting pollen, wasps hunting for a meal, and hummingbirds chasing each other.

Iridescent female parasitic wasp, *Leucospis birkmani*

An unexpected surprise: White-belted Ringtail dragonfly, *Erpetogomphus compositus*

Male American sand wasp, *Bembix americana*

Quick Biodiversity Update

iNaturalist is an invaluable resource for identifying wildlife and tracking my sightings. The numbers of species from my April blog post are in parentheses.

190 butterflies and moths (59)
93 flies (58)
90 ‘true bugs’ [Hemiptera] (50)
87 beetles (37)
85 bees (75)
81 wasps (45)
29 spiders (21)
14 antlions and lacewings [Neuroptera] (not mentioned before)
3 mayflies (1)

Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden

7June22 Plants in the garden, and sharing plants from the neighbor’s garden

Most urban and suburban lots are small relative to the natural tracts of native habitat, so there are limits to what we can plant, both in size and variety.

And, it turns out, putting your yard into context with the nearest forage/host area is quite important because many insects are limited in how far they can travel for food and lodging. To some, a football field of length can push limits of mobility.

So if you are close enough to a natural area that you can leverage it’s resources, fantastic! Add one or two specimens of various native plants can still get you to critical mass if considered as shared resources with the natural area. Same goes for sharing other resources, like water and nesting habitat.

Similarly, you can view the plants and other resources in your neighbor’s yards as something to be shared by the pollinator web of animals.

The neighbor behind us has a large Sissoo tree (not a tree that I would recommend), and the birds love the height and cover it affords. Good thing, because our backyard is only 2 years old, and even our fast growing mesquite and palo verdes need a bit more time to become truly comfortable perches.

Other neighbors have citrus, hibiscus and Arizona Yellow Bells to share. Let’s look at how some of the plants in and around the garden are looking on this 109 degree day.

Desert Willow in our garden is loving the heat

Rush Milkweed in our yard is a great nectar source this time of year

Peacock Flower in our garden has come back from a cut-back in the spring

Hopbush is a great low water screening plant in our garden

The Brittlebush finished their late-winter and spring flowerings, providing much needed food

Firecracker Penstemon is still showing a will to flower, but has mostly gone to seed

Desert Marigold is in its second bloom period. Finches love the seeds

Peaking over the fence, a beautiful hibiscus (thanks neighbor)

Another shared resource, loved by hummingbirds, host to Painted Lady and Gray Hairstreak

Arizona Yellow Bells, another great nectar plant (thanks neighbor!)

And Sunflowers have turned out to be a great addition to the vegetable garden

I’ve found some interesting bees on the sunflowers, but no butterflies so far. On the non-pollinator side of things though, the sunflowers attract a wide array of insects from lace bugs, psyllids, long legged flies, assassin bugs and lady beetles! Oh, and birds eating the insects off of the leaves.

Bumblebees of the Southwest

Yesterday, I posted about an opportunity for public participation in a bee and plant survey. Today, I want to share the 5 most common bumblebees in Arizona and New Mexico, according to iNaturalist.

American Bumblebee: Despite being on the verge of the endangered species list, it is the most common to see in our area. Females, especially queens, are large and have the most black bands on their backs of any species here.

Bombus pensylvanicus sharing Common sunflower with Svastra obliqua (longhorn bee) in Albuquerque

Sonoran Bumblebee is a close relative of the American and can be hard to tell apart. You are more likely to see them outside in the low desert around Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Cruces.

Picture © danabutters on iNaturalist.org

Morrison’s Bumblebee is the third most common of the large, black and yellow bumbles and closely related to the Nevada Bumblebee (6th most common). This species is almost entirely yellow and its conservation status is Vulnerable.

Bombus morrisoni enjoying a Prairie sunflower in author’s garden

Now we get to the smaller, red-belted species. First up is Hunt’s Bumblebee, which “is a striking species, consistently marked with deep colors except in faded individuals.”

The Great Basin Bumblebee is number 5 in our area. This species also has yellow hairs on its face, but a different pattern of black, yellow, and red than Hunt’s, with red and black hair bands touching on the abdomen.

Please check out Bumble Bee Watch and Xerces Society for more information.

For more species and identification tips, The Bumble Bees of Colorado is the best guide around.

What should I plant for the most pollinators?

As much as possible! Okay, that’s not much of an answer.

First, which kinds of pollinators do you want to attract?

Hummingbirds – red tubular Penstemon and Acanthus flowers work great.

Bees – sunflowers are your best bet.

Butterflies and moths aren’t so picky, but you’ll want to provide host plants, like milkweed for Monarchs.

Left: Male longhorn bees (genus Melissodes) shelter overnight on sunflowers (Helianthus)

Right: Spiny goldenweed (Xanthisma spinulosum) volunteers in author’s yard

Where can I buy these plants? Check out our new page here: pollinatorweb.com/host-plants/native-plant-nurseries/

Also, don’t kill all the “weeds” in your yard. Many native plants are dispersed by wind and birds and will grow on their own if given a chance.