Pollinators

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An orange and black butterfly perched on the cone of a purple coneflower.
A painted lady butterfly pollinates a coneflower.

When people think about pollinators, they usually think of honeybees. Most people don’t know that our common honeybee is actually an import from Europe, arriving on our shores in the 1600s.

Fewer people know that most of Missouri’s animal pollinators are native to the state, and that they represent an incredibly important resource for both native and introduced plants, including most Missouri crops.

Missouri pollinators:

  • ants
  • bees
  • beetles
  • butterflies
  • flies
  • hummingbirds
  • moths
  • wasps

Pollinator food and cover

Like other wildlife, pollinators need cover and food. Much of what you would do for ground-nesting birds and small game would also benefit pollinators. In fact, you may already have pollinator habitat and not even realize it.

Patches of native grassland, wetlands, and forests that contain a diversity of flowering plants provide refuge to these species. In addition to nectar-rich flowering plants, good pollinator habitats provide locations for overwintering and larval development. These areas consist of bare soil, residual stems of last year’s plants, and new plant growth.

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