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Globe Mallow Wild

Desert Pollinator Gardens: What to Plant to Attract Pollinators

Here at DesertStrawHouse Native Plants Nursery, we sell native plants because it is these plants which support pollinators — butterflies, bees, bats, birds, and a host of other wildlife critical to our delicate desert ecosystem.

What is a pollinator garden?

A pollinator garden is a type of garden intentionally planted with flowers that provide nectar or pollen to attract and support pollinating insects like bees and butterflies, birds, and other animals.

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Pollinator gardens typically include:

  • a variety of native flowering plants that bloom throughout the year, providing nectar and pollen across all seasons

  • blooms in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors to attract many different pollinators

  • native “host plants” for caterpillars

  • a water source for puddling

  • nesting sites for native bees

  • shelter from the elements and predators

 

Regardless of where you live, desert, mountains or somewhere in between, these components remain the same. What changes, based on where you live, is the plant selection. You always want to use plants that are native to your ecoregion.

 

Who are the pollinators in the desert?

  • Butterflies and Moths

  • Bees and Wasps

  • Hummingbirds

  • Mosquitoes

  • Flies

  • Beetles

  • Bugs

 

What do pollinators do?

Pollinators are animals that visit blooming flowers to feed on the nectar and pollen. In the process of feeding, they are dusted by pollen (the male reproductive part of the flower) and carry it to other flowers. When the pollen lands on the female part of the flower, it fertilizes the plant and allows it to reproduce. In this way, pollinators and plants rely on each other within ecosystems.

 

But pollinators do much more for the desert ecosystem than just pollinate our flowers. Without pollinators the ecosystem would crash.

 

To begin with, pollination is what enables food production for other animals — seeds, berries, fruits, and nuts.

 

Most of our native bees are ground nesting bees who excavate burrows in the soil for their young and stock them with pollen to eat. When bees build these burrows, they help aerate the desert’s hard-packed soils, allowing the rains to permeate and not run off. 

 

The female bees bring pollen and nectar to the nests as food for their offspring. This and the nitrogen rich waste from the larval bees remains improving our desert soil. 

 

The bodies of the pollinators themselves are an important food source for countless birds, mammals and reptiles who eat the protein and fat rich eggs, larvae or adult forms of pollinators or feed them to their young. 

Why pollinator gardens are important

Essential to a healthy functioning ecosystem

 

According to the National Wildlife Federation, more than 85% of flowering plants rely on animal pollinators. 25% of birds rely on the fruit, nuts and seeds that they produce. And native bees pollinate 15% of the US fruit, nut, vegetable and field crops.

 

Almost the entirety of the nutritional needs of a bee are met by flowers. Adult bees eat a little pollen and a lot of nectar. They feed their larvae a lot of pollen mixed often with a little bit of nectar. Pollen provides bees with an excellent source of protein as well as chemical compounds important in the egg development in females. Nectar provides bees with carbohydrates in the form of sugars as well as amino acids.

 

The Western monarch butterflies have declined by more than 95% in just the last few decades.
 

Habitat restoration

 

According to David Mizejewski of the National Wildlife Federation “Humans are a major cause of the rapid negative environmental change negatively impacting our wildlife.”

 

Human activities such as agriculture, mining, urban development take up the living, nesting and feeding areas of pollinators resulting in habitat fragmentation

 

Pesticide and fungicide use in agriculture can also spill over to hurt pollinators
 

The pesticides we use have become stronger and even the “organic” pesticides and herbicides will kill pollinators if used incorrectly or at the wrong time of day.

 

Invasive plants and animals (including bees like the European honeybee) along with introduced diseases and parasites threaten pollinators
 

The USA National Phenology Network based at the University of Arizona, has volunteer observers in the Southwest and across the United States. From their data, and from scientists elsewhere, we know that many flowering plants now bloom one or more weeks earlier than ever before, presumably due to climate change. Shifts in bloom times by their flower host plants may adversely affect pollinators.
 

Non flowering lawns: Lawns typically consist of a non-flowering monoculture (which means only one plant species), which provides little habitat and food for wildlife.

 

 

Pollinator gardens contain native plants, and native plants are regional

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Native plants are plants that were here before we were. The other plants, animals, and even the soil co-evolved with these plants. The lizards, native bees, birds, and all the other animals depend upon these plants for their survival — not just for food.
 

  • Somewhere between 30-60% of native bees are pollen specialists meaning that they can only feed their young from native plants. Without those native plants they are unable to reproduce.
     

  • Butterflies frequently rely on specific native plants (a host plant) as food for their caterpillar offspring. Without those host plants the butterflies will not lay their eggs. This has been one of the key factors in the decline of the Monarch butterfly. 
     

  • Plants have developed an arsenal of chemical defenses including distasteful or even toxic substances. Caterpillars evolved alongside their host plant to be able to tolerate those defenses. By co-evolving together caterpillars are able to repel predators by making themselves distasteful or even toxic.

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​What kind of plants do I need in a desert pollinator garden?

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Pollinators require nectar plants, plants that produce pollen and larval host plants for butterflies. You should strive for 50-75% native plants in your garden. This will give you a variety of native plants for specialist bees and host plants for butterflies. 
 

We frequently concentrate on the pollen producing plants or a particular larval host plant, but nectar is a requirement in a pollinator garden. Nectar is an enriched sugar water for nutrition and moisture. Without nectar your garden will have no fuel to feed the butterflies, bees and hummingbirds! 
 

You want to ensure a mix of nectar and pollen sources that bloom throughout the year. 
 

  • Butterflies tend to prefer the color yellow, which is very good for us in the desert as that’s our predominant flower color. 
     

  • Bees seem to like shades of blue which are a bit more difficult to find.
     

  • Both butterflies and bees like flat disc-shaped flowers they can land on. This shape requires the insect to step about on the flat top surface while drinking nectar ensuring they gather lots of pollen. 
     

  • Hummingbirds love tubular flowers in all shades of red. 
     

  • What’s most important is to have a mix of flower types (disc, tubular) and colors that will attract the most variety of pollinators and a garden that is appealing to you.

  • Clumps of flowering plants will attract more pollinators than single plants scattered throughout the garden.

  • Fun fact: bees are the only pollinator that actively gathers pollen to feed their offspring. 

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Can I attract pollinators if I plant other plants, too?

 

Yes you can, but you won’t be giving them everything they need to survive and reproduce. Plants and animals have coevolved together since before we were here. They rely on each other for their survival and reproduction. 

 

Native plants are more valuable from an ecological point of view than non-native. Non-native plants tend to be more generalized and do not capture those specialized relationships. Native plants support both specialized and general relationships.  When designing your garden try for 50-75% native plants.

 

Some bees are very particular about the pollen they collect for their young, limiting themselves to just a few plant species even when several are available. These bees are known as specialists. When the bees do not have access to the pollen from these native species, they will not reproduce.

 

Plants in the nightshade family keep their pollen inside anthers (pollen holding structures) that work like salt shakers. The pollen stays securely inside until the anthers are tipped upside down and shaken. Only some bees know how to do this behavior called buzz pollination. Without the bees who know how to do this, these plants can not reproduce.

 

Butterflies can have very specific needs on the host plants for where they lay their eggs. If the plants are not available they will not reproduce. 5% of native plants host 75% of local butterflies per the National Wildlife Federation

 

Milkweed (Asclepias) have been found to set more seeds when leafcutter bees are around to pollinate them. This benefits both the plant and the Monarch and Queen butterflies which the milkweed is a host plant for.

Pollinator Plant Lists for California Deserts

Desert plants for butterflies​

Spring-blooming plants for pollinators​​​

Summer-blooming plants for pollinators​​​

Fall blooming

 

Winter blooming

 

Desert Plants for Bees

 

Spring blooming

 

Summer blooming

 

Pollinator plants with white flowers for the desert​​

Examples of suitable plants

Who they attract

  • Bramble Hairstreak

  • Bernardino Dotted-Blue

  • Acmon Blue

  • Lupine Blue

  • Desert Metalmark

  • Behr’s Metalmark

  • Monarch

  • Queen

  • Leafcutter bee

  • Tarantula Hawkwasp

  • White Lined Sphinx Moth

​Pollinator plants with yellow flowers for the desert
 

  • Who they attract

    • Becker’s White

    • Wright’s Metalmark

    • Leafcutter bee

    • Carpenter bee
       

  • Examples of suitable plants

    • Angelita Daisy

    • Brittlebush

    • Bladderpod

    • Blue Palo Verde

    • Sweetbush

    • Creosote

    • Desert Marigold

    • Yellow Bells


Pollinator plants with orange flowers for the desert
 

  • Who they attract

    • Gray Hairstreak

    • West Coast Lady

    • White Checkered-Skipper

    • Small Checkered-Skipper

    • Northern White-Skipper

    • Orange Sulphur

    • Harford’s Sulphur

    • Bramble Hairstreak

    • Marine Blue

    • Silvery Blue

    • Acmon Blue

    • Funereal Duskywing
       

  • Examples of suitable plants

    • Desert Globe Mallow

    • Indian Blanket

    • Deerweed

    • Santa Rita Prickly Pear


Pollinator plants with red flowers for the desert
 

  • Who they attract

    • Hummingbirds
       

  • Examples of suitable plants

    • Chuparosa

    • Indian Blanket

    • Mexican Lobelia

    • Englemann’s Hedgehog


Pollinator plants with purple and blue flowers for the desert
 

  • Who they attract

    • Gray Hairstreak

    • Painted Lady
       

  • Examples of suitable plants

    • Blue Mist Flower

    • Desert Lavender

    • Dyebush

    • Schott’s Indigo Bush

    • Desert Willow


Pollinator plants with tubular flowers for the desert
 

  • Who they attract

    • Hummingbirds
       

  • Examples of suitable plants

    • Penstemons

    • Chuparosa

    • Tecoma stans

    • Desert Willow


Night-blooming pollinator plants for the desert
 

  • Who they attract

    • White Lined Sphinx Moth
       

  • Examples of suitable plants

    • Evening Primrose

    • Sacred Datura

    • Opuntias

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