Pollination can happen through self-pollination, wind and water pollination, or through the work of pollinators. These are animals or insects that carry pollen from one plant to another as consequence of their activity on a flower and they are responsible for 80% of all plant pollination. There are about 200,000 different species that act as pollinators. Of these, approximately 1,000 are hummingbirds, bats and small mammals. The remainder are insects such as beetles, bees, ants, wasps, butterflies and moths.
Pollinators visit flowers in search of food, mates, shelter and nest-building materials. They drink nectar or feed off of pollen and transport pollen grains as they move from spot to spot, thereby starting the fertilization process in the plant. In turn, the sugars in nectar and the proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals from pollen grains power the pollinators growth, metamorphosis, flight and reproduction. There is a bond where neither the plant nor the pollinator populations can exist without each other. Should one or the other disappear, each is only one generation away from disaster.
Plants have differing flowering times throughout the growing season which decreases competition for pollinators and helps to provide pollinators with a constant supply of food. From the first warmth in late winter through spring and summer, until frost in late autumn, flowering plants are available to their pollinators providing pollen and nectar in exchange for their pollination service.
Plants have evolved many intricate methods for attracting pollinators. These include visual cues such as colour or showy petals, using scent as an attractant, providing a food source and even entrapment. Animal-pollinated flowering plants produce pollen that is sticky and barbed to attach to the animal and thus be transferred to the next flower. Likewise, many pollinators have evolved specialized structures and behaviors to assist in plant pollination such as the fur on the face of a bat or barbs on the legs of an insect.
The most widely known pollinator is the bee. Bees pollinate as they move from flower to flower to drink nectar and to collect pollen on their hind legs. The most widely known bee is the honeybee. Honeybees are not native to Canada, however they are highly managed for their honey production and for pollination services for commercial crops. The honeybee is only a small part of the bee world. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees worldwide with about 300 native to Alberta. Most bee species are solitary (bees that aren’t social and don’t live in a hive). With solitary bees, the female constructs and tends to her own nest without the help of others. Native bees such as green sweat bees, mason bees, bumble bees, polyester bees, mining bees, and leafcutter bees all work as pollinators.