POINT PLEASANT BEACH — Point Beach residents gathered in the meeting room of the “Little Red Library” on Tuesday morning to learn how to make their yards more pollinator-friendly from fellow resident and gardener Cathy Kniffin.
Kniffin began the program, called “Pollinators and the Plants that Support Them,” by talking about the prehistoric co-evolution of plants and their main pollinators. She explained that one of the biologically oldest pairs of plant and pollinator is the magnolia and the beetle.
“The magnolia came up with the beetle,” she said. “And the magnolia’s petals, if you look closely, are really thick. That opening, where the pollen and the nectar are, is right up there, which is what beetles love. Beetles pollinate via a method called ‘mess and stomp…’ they have little sticky bottoms and they stomp across the flowers, collecting pollen on their feet and flying to another flower…This stomping method has created an adaptation in the flowers that they particularly pollinate to have thicker petals.”
Kniffin’s is a Jersey-Friendly Yards-certified yard, meaning her yard follows a checklist of specific criteria intended to protect the Barnegat Bay watershed, including: minimizing fertilizer use, watering wisely, reducing lawn size and, of course, keeping one’s garden free of chemical pesticides to promote the flourishing of pollinators.
“So, what is this pollinator job, anyway?” she said. “Pollinators are going for nectar; they’re not going because they’re nice and they want to help the plant reproduce…(Nectar) is their food.
As an incidental of that, they’re pollinating the next flower.”
“The pollen is the male component that will fertilize the female flower, plant or tree,” said Kniffin.
She gave zucchini as a prime example of a plant that requires heavy pollination from living sources.
“If you’ve ever had a garden growing zucchini and it’s shriveled up; zucchini is one plant that needs the most pollination,” she said. “If you want zucchini and you don’t see bees near it, you have to (manually) pollinate it…Male flowers usually have a taller stem; they’ll rise above the plant…You take the pollen and rub it on the female (flower) — which is what a beetle’s foot or a butterfly’s proboscis would do naturally.”
In discussing initiatives from the municipalities in the area, Kniffin talked about how borough organizations like the shade tree commission and beautification committee, which maintain a large portion of the plants on borough property.
“We have these amazing committees and commissions in this town and they work together fabulously,” she said. “They have established pollinating tree areas and garden areas; these are public spaces, they’re fantastic and there should be more of them. But that’s public; we only have so much public land. How much private land do we have?”
“The research goes like this: townships are trying to increase their pollinators, they’re trying to increase biodiversity and create a healthier township…Residential per-square-inch pesticide use…is more per square foot than agricultural use,” said Kniffin. She then warned against the ecological dangers of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to pollinators and to humans. “That is a lot of chemicals, and where is it all going? It’s going in the water.”
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star —on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
Check out our other Point Pleasant Beach stories, updated daily. And remember to pick up a copy of The Ocean Star —on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition .
Subscribe today! If you're not already an annual subscriber to The Ocean Star , get your subscription today! For just $38 per year, you will receive local mail delivery weekly, with pages and pages of local news and online access to our e-edition on Starnewsgroup.com.
Most Popular
Comments / 0