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Worth sneezing for: The importance of pollen and pollinators

Pollen is a tiny plant structure with a hugely important job. It's a plant's way of making more plants.

Some plants can reproduce without pollination, but the result is a plant that is a replica of its parent. Pollination ensures that genes from one plant will "mix it up" with genes from another plant. The offspring will have a mix of traits from both parents. Genetic diversity is a good thing.

Pollen is produced by the male part of a plant (the anther). Its sole purpose is to fertilize the female part of another flower (the stigma). The trick is getting there.

Plants, being stuck in one place, are at a distinct disadvantage over animals who can go out and look for a partner.

It's indeed a daunting task for pollen to enter the dating world. What are the odds of a minuscule grain of pollen from the oak tree in your yard reaching the female stigma of the neighbor's oak tree a block away? Pretty slim. Or, what about the snapdragon in your garden, with very heavy pollen stuck in its blossom? How can its pollen reach another snapdragon?

Plants have evolved some effective ways of beating the odds. Taking advantage of wind is one. Recruiting animals is another.

Wind pollination is a pretty chancy business, but it works. Catching a ride on the wind, millions of tiny, lightweight pollen grains float through the air. Millions - that's the key. All it takes is one pollen grain to land on one stigma, but to increase the odds a plant has to send out copious quantities of pollen. There is so much pollen that you can see clouds of pollen on an early summer day. Pollen can travel 10 miles or more, and it gets everywhere - on your car, on your porch furniture, in your screens, and all too often, in your nose.

With luck, a pollen grain happens upon a female stigma. Fertilization ensues and voilĂ ! A seed is born. Mission accomplished. The other 100,000 or so do not reach the goal, and these are the problem for us.

The success of wind pollination is pretty important. Most of the world's cereal crops are wind-pollinated. This includes wheat, corn, rice, rye and oats. Lots of trees in our area are wind-pollinated, particularly nut-bearing trees like oaks, hickories, and walnuts.

No pollen, no Wheaties. No pollen, no pecan pie. No pollen, no maple syrup.

Oh, and ragweed is wind-pollinated. Yeah, that we can do without.

By contrast, lots of plants deliver the goods via animals. Pollination by animals involves quite a cast of characters. The European honeybee is the poster-child of insect pollination, but there are many other bees - notably, bees native to Illinois - that are critical for pollination of native plants.

In addition to bees there are scads of insect pollinators - butterflies, moths, beetles, ants and hoverflies, to name a few.

And that's not all. Invertebrate pollinators include slugs, millipedes and centipedes.

Slugs, for example, pollinate certain species of morning glory flowers. Bees also pollinate morning glories, but they call it quits in the rain. Slugs do the job rain or shine. And hence, more morning glories are born.

Larger animals are pollinators, too.

Thank a bat for your margarita. Bats in Mexico pollinate the Agave tequilina plant, from which we get tequila.

And of course, there are hummingbirds. Ruby-throated hummingbirds in our area pollinate flowers like wild columbine, salvia, jewelweed, and wild bergamot.

The purpose of pollen is often lost among the wheezing and sneezing this time of year. Keep in mind, as you blow your nose, that without pollen, we wouldn't have plants. Without plants, we wouldn't eat. It's tough sometimes, but I'll sneeze for food.

•Valerie Blaine is a naturalist with the Forest Preserve District of Kane County. Email her at blainevalerie@kaneforest.com.

The male flowers of the big bluestem, our state grass, produce tons of pollen. COURTESY OF VALERIE BLAINE
The White Oak produces wind-pollinated flowers. COURTESY OF VALERIE BLAINE
Pollen is so plentiful that it creates a "pollen corona" in the sky, such as this one photographed in northern Minnesota. The white spots are aspen seeds, better known as "cotton fluff," and unrelated to the corona. COURTESY OF BOB KING
  A bee gathers pollen from a prairie sunflower. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  A hoverfly rests atop a salvia plant. May and June are great months to observe flowers and pollinators. Bev Horne/bhorne@dailyherald.com
A pollinator works away on a wild geranium in full bloom. courtesy of Valerie Blaine.
  Insects aren't the only animals who help with pollination. Here, a female ruby-throated hummingbird flies upward to red-salvia flowers. George LeClaire/ gleclaire@dailyherald.com
Butterflies, like this monarch, are among the insects who help with pollination. Daily Herald File Photo

How you can learn more about pollinators

Join the Pollination Celebration. It's National Pollinator Week, and we're ready to celebrate the animals that make our lives possible.

Come out to the prairie at the Dick Young Forest Preserve in Batavia from 1-2:30 p.m. Sunday, June 21, for a naturalist-guided walk. Search for native insect pollinators and learn about the flowers they visit. Using sweep nets, bug boxes, and other nifty tools, everyone will have the chance to get up-close and personal with pollinators.

All ages are welcome; children must be accompanied by an adult. The fee is $2 per person. For information or to register, call (630) 444-3190 or email programs@kaneforest.com. Visit <a href="http://www,kaneforest.com">www. kaneforest.com</a>.

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