Foraging in the Fall

Kim Bagby, SSMGA, VMN As of this writing, I just refilled my hummingbird feeder probably for the last time this season. I’ll keep it going as long as the hummers need it. Last year, if I recall correctly, we saw our last hummingbird as Halloween was nearing. There are still flowers blooming to help feed those hummers and other late-season pollinators. Bees and wasps are still actively working the blossoms they can find, as are many species of flies. The hummers are preparing for that long flight south, but the rest, the invertebrates, are preparing for a long winter right here. Honeybees will hunker down in their hives, starting their winter preparations when the temperatures hit the 50s or so. Their winter plan is complex and outside my experience, but there are lots of beekeepers in the county who would welcome your questions. As to the native invertebrates, their overwintering habits also vary widely with each species and habitat and make for some interesting reading. In the spring they’ll all emerge from their hiding places and start working again, pollinating our crops and flowers. Native insects look for native flowers for their meals. Earlier in the year supplies of nectar and pollen were plentiful, but as the summer and fall wane, so do the food supplies. Those vibrant splashes of yellow you see out along county roads? Generally at least two of these are from the Asteraceae. These include the Rudbeckia genus and here locally, include R. hirta, the black-eyed Susan, and R. grandiflora, the rough coneflower. Starting its bloom a little later in the season is Solidago, the goldenrod, with its graceful arching habit and delicate flowers. Obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana, is another late summer and fall bloomer. Its upright spikes tend to be lavender but can also be white. It reseeds itself readily and is a welcome splash of color when everything else seems to be starting to brown for the winter. Even though our native insects prefer to feed on native flowers, or sometimes are obligated to do so, for others some of the non-native plants will work. Chicory, the Cichorium species, native to Europe, is well-visited by some pollinators. So is mallow family member Hibiscus syriacus, native to east Asia. Virginia does have a native hibiscus, H. moscheutos, the swamp or Eastern rose-mallow, but it can be hard to find. Hummingbirds in particular seem to like the hibiscus. That pesky mint, that will run amok and take over your yard if you’re not vigilant and ruthless with it, also serves as food for the pollinating insects, particularly the smallest of them—the many varieties of flies you can see visiting the flowers if you’re patient. They’re tiny and fast—too fast for me—and I’ve seen upwards of half a dozen species on the plants. The bumblebees and wasps are there too. There are anywhere from one to two dozen different species of mint—even the botanists can’t agree on the names, let alone the numbers. The mints hybridize easily where their ranges overlap and cultivars have been developed for commercial sales. Mints are native to the Mediterranean, for the most part. There are only a few native to Virginia. One is Mentha canadensis, Canada mint, but it doesn’t grow here in Southside. The other is the better-known Pycnanthemum. Flora of Virginia lists 15 members of this genus but only a handful of them occur in Halifax County. They’re great for pollinators and lovely in a garden. I’ve only skimmed the tip of the iceberg where pollinators are concerned. In addition to birds and insects, plant pollinators include bats, spiders, beetles—even animals that just brush up against a flower and transfer pollen to another plant as they go by. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, three quarters of the world’s flowering plants and more than a third of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators. If the pollinators decline, as many species are, our food supply also faces collapse. The USDA has some great information on their Web site: The Importance of Pollinators | USDA. As always, I owe many thanks to our Virginia Cooperative Extension Southside Master Gardeners and the Virginia Master Naturalist Southern Piedmont Chapter, and to all the people who give their time to and through these groups to educate us! The Virginia Cooperative Extension Halifax Extension Office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have gardening questions, you can continue to reach an extension master gardener or extension staff member by sending an email to wmccaleb@vt.edu or calling the Halifax Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at 434-830-3383. Be sure to give us your first and last name, telephone number and the nature of the call. The help desk phone is routinely checked Monday-Friday. Someone will get back to you, although it may be from a different telephone number.