False Indigo in Bloom
A great native plant for the yard
One of the subtle but important ways to benefit birds is to plant natives that provide subsistence for birds - either directly as a food source or indirectly as a host plant to grow the insects birds consume. Natives also provide food and shelter for attracting pollinators.
Some natives are very pretty and easy to grow in the garden. False indigo (Baptisia australis) is one of these. Here is a good description of the plant’s characteristics from the American Beauties Native Plants website:
As a landscape plant, False Indigo is versatile and colorful. Reaching heights of 3’-5’, the plant makes an excellent pollinator-friendly backdrop for shorter native plants and behaves much like a shrub in sunny to partially sunny areas. The same compounds that give the plant its signature color also make the plant taste unpleasant to deer, which can be a significant advantage if you struggle with deer damage in your garden. Furthermore, False Indigo is very tolerant of drought—a boon for those who wish to conserve water! Once the flowers fade, they leave behind attractive seedpods so attractive, they make excellent additions in decorative dried flower arrangements! While the heavy seed pods are prone to weighing down and breaking the stems, those that stay standing will provide texture and interest in the fall and winter landscape. The seeds inside the pods also provide a valuable food source for birds when other sources run scarce.
Once established, the plant needs little maintenance, can be left intact all winter and the dead stalks easily removed in spring for the new growth.
Today the plant had regular visits from bumble bees and in searching for the host relationship I read how the bees interact with the plant. From the Xerces Society:
Due to their size and strength, relative to other pollinators, bumble bees are well adapted to access the nectar and pollen within these uniquely shaped flowers. Bumble bees grip the keel with their mid and hind legs, using the leverage produced to propel them forward into the heart of the flower where they can access nectar. This has the benefit (from the flowers’ perspective) of lowering the keel and exposing the bumble bees’ fuzzy abdomen to the pollen-covered anthers.
These plants produce their blooms on long stalks (known as racemes). Blooms mature from the bottom up. As the blooms mature, older flowers are more pistillate (female), producing more nectar than pollen. Bumble bees will approach the stalk and land on the lower flowers first — seeking higher nectar rewards. They will then work their way up, ending with the more pollen-rich staminate (male) flowers at the top. As they move to the next stalk, pollen attached from the staminate flowers of the previous stalk is then transferred to the pistillate flowers of the current stalk.
Just as the article states these bumble bees started at the bottom of the bloom stalk and worked their way up to the top before flying to another stalk to start over. Reminds me of how the brown creeper bird works tree trunks from the bottom up in search of food. Another great example of a reason and purpose for how nature’s systems work.