Perfect Pumpkin Pollinators: The Squash Bees!

摘要

Sweet, smooth, and spicy, it's no wonder that pumpkin pie is a holiday favorite, year after year. But the rotund pumpkins from which the delicious pie filling is made will only form when the plants' showy, yellow-orange blossoms are pollinated. Fortunately, native bees of the genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa are excellent pumpkin patch pollinators. Apparently, they're also proficient pollinators of pumpkin's many cucurbit relatives, including gourds and squash—spaghetti, pattypan, butternut, Hubbard, and zucchini. ARS entomologists Jim Cane, Frank Eischen, and Blair Sampson are enthusiastic boosters of the so-called squash and gourd bees—about 20 wild, indigenous North, Central, and South American species in all.