Most pollinator gardens include herbaceous flowers like milkweed, asters or goldenrod, but there is another often-overlooked and just as valuable addition you can include in your landscape to help pollinators: trees.
All parts of a tree can support pollinators through different life stages year-round. Grouping a native tree with shrubs, grasses or flowers that bloom throughout the season creates healthier habitat for a diversity of butterflies, bees, moths, syrphid flies and other pollinators.
Here are a few ways trees help pollinators:
Flowers: Trees like red maple, eastern redbud, serviceberries and willows are some of the earliest flowering native trees that support the first pollinators who have just woken up from a long winter, such as queen bumble bees. As the weather warms, black cherry, alternate-leaved dogwood and tulip trees bloom with an abundance of nectar and pollen, beneficial to emerging butterflies and solitary bees.
Leaves: Native trees are essential for many moth and butterfly caterpillars. Oaks, for example, support over 500 different species of caterpillars. Leaves are their main food source and our native caterpillars rarely cause more than minimal damage to the tree canopy. Fallen leaves insulate the ground for wild bees and caterpillars overwintering below.
Bark: Some trees, like common hackberry or shagbark hickory, have lots of nooks and crannies in their bark that can be a great hiding place for pollinators. Some moths, such as the Virginia ctenucha moth, attach their cocoons to bark or branches that camouflage them as they transform. Some solitary bees lay their eggs between pieces of bark or use an old cavity or hole made by another critter. Mourning cloak butterflies like to tuck themselves under a piece of bark for the winter.
Help pollinators by adding trees and other woodland plants to your yard. Get inspired by our Woodland Plants for Landscaping native plant list. Learn about which trees and other woodland plants help pollinators and choose some to add to your yard.