June 23, 2023

ebrated because of the importance of pollinators to our food chain. A pollinator is any type of insect or bird that transfers pollen from one flower to another, enabling those plants to produce seeds, young plants, and fruit. While some plants are self-pollinated by pollen being carried by wind or water, other plants are pollinated by insects and wildlife. These can include bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, birds, and small mammals, including bats. Without pollinators, we would not have many of our favorite foods such as fruits and vegetables. Despite their ecological and economic importance, pollinators worldwide are at serious risk of population decline. Threats to pollinators are largely human-induced and include climate change, widespread pesticide use, and habitat destruction.

Since the Pollinator Prairie opened in 2012, this native habitat has provided food and safe shelter for a variety of pollinators by providing pollinator-friendly plant species. The Pollinator Prairie is free and open to the public from sunrise to sunset every day of the year. An accessible trail winds around four gardens including the Bee Garden, the Bird Garden, the Butterfly Garden, and the Monarch Garden. Each garden is filled with native plants particularly attractive to each species. For example, the Bee Garden includes Kansas wildflowers that attract native bees. The Bird Garden has seed and berry-producing plants that provide food for songbirds through the summer and in winter when insects are scarce. Various butterflies seen feeding on nectar in the Butterfly Garden include Common Buckeyes, swallowtails, and the beautiful Red Admiral Butterfly. The Monarch Garden is loaded with several varieties of milkweed and other nectar producing wildflowers to attract Monarch butterflies.

The seasonal gardens at Pollinator Prairie provide a wonderful showcase of native plants to meet the unique needs of different species of insects and wildlife from season to season. It is important to include native plants in your garden because native plant species produce the right pollen and nectar at the right time of year to attract the pollinators that feed on them. The more diversity you have in terms of shapes, colors and bloom time of native plants, the better your chances for attracting beneficial pollinators to your garden.

For more information on the Wonders of Discovery Event or the Pollinator Prairie, visit Facebook. com/PollinatorPrairie or call the Johnson County K-State Research and Extension office at 913-7157000.

Surprising Facts about the Inner World of Bees, the Insect You Thought You Knew

In What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories, and Personalities of Bees (Island Press, March 7, 2023), pollination ecologist Stephen Buchmann brings readers into the mysterious, fascinating minds of bees and introduces the scientists and researchers uncovering their alien ways of seeing the world.

Although bee brains are incredibly small—just one million neurons compared to humans’ 100 billion—they have remarkable abilities to navigate, learn, solve problems, communicate, and remember.

Here are some surprising facts about the inner world of bees, the insect you thought you knew!

Global bee diversity is about the same as the number of fish species. There are 21,000 species in the world, with roughly 3,500 species from the continental US alone.

Most in the world are actually ground-nesting and solitary, with no queen or workers. Only about 10% of the world’s bees are social, including honeybees and bumblebees.

Bees are sentient, self-aware, can likely feel pain, and may have a simple form of consciousness.

Despite being the size of a poppy seed, a honeybee’s brain is quite complex. It has almost one million neurons and up to a billion synaptic connections.

Learn more at:

Beneficial Wasps and You, https://ngb.org/beneficial-wasps/

Bee-Friendly Plants Create a Perfect Pollinator Garden, https://ngb.org/bee-friendly-plants/

Flower Power in the Pollinator Victory Garden, https://ngb.org/flower-power-pollinator-garden/

Used with permission from National Garden Bureau, ngb.org.

June 3, 2023

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Lakeside Nature Center, 4701 E Gregory Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64132 FREE

Get out and enjoy Nature with guided hikes focusing on Oaks and Geology. Also learn about how to Plant Native.

Encounters / Presentations:

11 a.m. – Hike – emphasis on oaks Noon – How to Plant Native

1 p.m. – Hike – emphasis on geology

816-513-8960