Pollinator Update

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the pollinators in my garden and beyond. The first photo was of a Yellow Lupine and "some bee."

Well, I found out this morning that this bee is the Yellow-faced Bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii). 

This ID came to me through an unusual-to-me source: The newspaper. Specifically, the Home & Garden section of the San Francisco Chronicle dated June 14, 2009 that my brother left in my favorite chair. He had spied an article called "Give bees a chance" and thought it might interest me. You can find the article online in their archives.

The article talks, not just about bees and wasps, but about hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths (and beetles, flies, and bats!). They mention the Anise Swallowtail as being one of our local butterflies. They and the Western Swallowtail are quite remarkable when floating through the garden!

Here's where I get on my soapbox. A couple of the commenters on the online version of the article were touting planting Sweet Fennel to support the Anise Swallowtail. Now, granted, the Anise Swallowtail will use fennel as a host plant (the plant that the caterpillar eats before becoming a butterfly), but fennel is not only not native to the area, it's considered an invasive weed. Gah!

For those of you who want to cut down on invasive weeds, help the local ecosystems, AND feed the Anise Swallowtail, try planting its NATIVE larval foods. (OK, they might be a trifle challenging to come by, but you can try.)

• Southern Tauschia (Tauschia arguta) is definitely a Southern (well south of Monterey County) California plant, so not for the Bay Area.
  
• Woolly-fruited Lomatium (Lomatium dasycarpum) is found pretty much throughout California (except the Sierras).
  It's available at Bay Natives, Native Here Nursery, and Oaktown Native Plant Nursery.
• Common Lomatium (Lomatium utriculatum) is found even more widely throughout California than the Woolly-fruited variety.
  It's available at Annie's Annuals, Native Here Nursery, and Northwest Native Seed.
• Pacific Oenanthe (Oenanthe sarmentosa) is found throughout much of California, but especially along the coast and Coast Ranges. This is also known as Water Parsley, so it's probably going to want a wet area.
  For those of us looking to do drier gardening, something else might be a better choice. If you are still interested, try Native Here Nursery or Friends of Sausal Creek Nursery.

So, please don't (as a couple of the on-line commenters suggest) go out and plant fennel all over the place! Help out the Anise Swallowtails (and all the other pollinators out there) by planting a few more California Natives!