Worth the read .... why natives ... Ephemerals

[Botany]

http://www.xerces.org/ephemerals-may-2016/

Spring ephemerals may be fleeting, but some native species host unique interactions with native pollen specialist bees. Pollen specialist bees associate with one host-plant family, a few related host-plant genera, or a single host-plant genus. For example:

• Spring beauty (Claytonia spp.) hosts the spring beauty mining bee (Andrena erigeniae)
• Trout lily (Erythronium spp.) hosts the trout lily mining bee (Andrena erythronii)
• Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum spp.) hosts the waterleaf mining bee (Andrena geranii)
• Bellwort (Uvularia spp.) hosts the rare bellwort mining bee (Andrena uvulariae)
Specialist bees of spring ephemerals are equally ephemeral: bees fleetingly fly and forage on above-ground host-plant flowers to provision below-ground nests, where bees rest quiet until successive springs.

Specialist bee and spring ephemeral associations can benefit both bees and flowers from better foraging efficacy, pollen digestibility, and pollination rates. However, spring ephemerals and hosted specialist bees are often rare or uncommon, and thereby susceptible to harm from habitat degradation, fragmentation, and loss, phenological mismatch, or inclement weather. Threats such as urbanization, timber harvesting, and climate change potentially imperil pollen specialists and spring ephemerals with population declines and extinctions.

Pollinator conservation projects in the temperate deciduous forests of the United States should prioritize actions that sustain abundant and diverse communities of native spring ephemeral host-plants. If spring ephemeral host-plants are already present in a given habitat, then they should be protected or enhanced. Protection from competing exotic plants, e.g., Norway maple (Acer platanoides), garlic mustard (Allaria petiolata), or lesser celandine (Ficaria verna), and browsing deer can support populations of spring ephemerals and their pollen specialist bees

[athena]

1. I love native plants.

I started planting natives three years ago. They require little or no maintenance and attract wildlife to the yard. And there is always something blooming in the garden, even late in the fall.

[Botany]

2. for the past 10 days I have watched as a little native bee has been working on ...

.... Heuchera richardsonii.

[athena]

3. My swamp milkweed is blooming.

Almost every time I look out the window at it, there is a Monarch butterfly over it. This morning, there were two, who appeared to be chasing each other around like squirrels.

I planted three more a few days ago. It takes a couple of years for it to get going, but it's a joy to watch once the blooms appear.

[Botany]

4. I have never seen one plant atttract native pollinators, humming birds, and butterflies like ....

.... A. incarnata. Only problem is that sometimes it needs to be tied up and or staked.
Nice fall color too.