September- Pollination 101
Friends of High School Park is kicking off a year of programming and celebration of our native pollinators. Beginning in October, we will offer educational workshops, photos, fun facts, links to additional sites and conservation tips highlighting a different pollinator each month through next August. Come to High School Park and observe what is there, learn about what pollinators do, what kind of lives they lead and how they benefit us all. In the coming months the conversations will continue to include the benefits of native plants needed for these pollinators, and the concern over widespread use of neonicotinoids in the propagation of plants and how these toxic chemicals ultimately effect both insects and birds.
This month we will focus on the process of pollination. Over the following months we will talk a lot about pollinators, but what exactly does pollination mean? And why should we care? Let’s take a look!
“Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds. Seeds contain the genetic information to produce a new plant. Flowers are the tools that plants use to make their seeds. The basic parts of the flower are shown in the diagram here. Seeds can only be produced when pollen is transferred between flowers of the same species.” (taken from the USDA Forest Service U.S. Dept. of Agriculture www.fs.usda.gov)
For a more thorough explanation of pollination and pollinators, please visit any of the following sites and continue learning along with us!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfvyoir_SCY (this is a wonderful YouTube video explaining pollination with animation}
https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildflowers/pollinators/what-is-pollination
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9512639/
https://www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/tablerock/files/pollination_partners.pdf
https://www.backyardecology.net/tag/pollinator/
https://www.backyardecology.net/not-all-flower-visitors-are-pollinators/
https://xerces.org/blog/states-make-way-for-pesticide-reforms.