URBANA — While the bumblebee is likely the most well-known pollinator, pollinators come in a variety of shapes, species, and sizes.
“Many entomologists believe the tiny sweat bee nectaring on your flowering weed is just as important to a healthy ecosystem as the more well-known bumble bee and honey bee,” says Kelly Allsup, University of Illinois horticulture educator.
Gardeners and homeowners can make a space more attractive to the small pollinators of Illinois by planting miniature flowers. These little bees, about the size of an ant, love pollinating miniature flowers in an urban environment where there is usually more floral diversity than in rural areas.
YARD AND GARDEN: Bulbs, corms, tubers, roots and such
Small sweat bees, Lasioglossum, are dark brown, gray, black, or metallic with hairs on their legs and abdomen giving them a fuzzy appearance. These pollinating bees nest in bare ground that has loose soil. They nest individually, but there may be multiple nests in one area.
“Small sweat bees are especially attracted to a much beloved Illinois native shrub, button bush, or Cephalanthus occidentalis,” says Allsup.
Button bush boasts minuscule tube-shaped florets on a globular white seed head in the middle of summer, followed by an ornamental red seed head. This large shrub grows to about 6 to 8 feet and can form thickets in wet environments.
Yellow-faced or masked bees, Hylaeus, are dark bees that look like wasps with their yellow or white face markings. Lacking the hair of typical pollinating bees, these tiny bees ingest pollen and nectar, then regurgitate the mixture in nesting cells to feed larvae when they hatch.
This pollinator emerges in the late spring when the bold flowers of golden alexanders, Zizia aurea, begin to bloom and remains active until the compound flowers of goldenrod, Solidago spp, start to fade. Yellow-faced bees can be seen pollinating the miniature white and purple flowers of common mountain mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum. These small flowers are arranged in clusters that bloom in late summer.
Small carpenter bees, Ceratina, which are black and metallic blue, excavate the center of small stems in the garden. They have fine pollen-collecting hairs on their legs and carry pollen and nectar back to the nest within the stem.
Small carpenter bees are attracted to small flowers of spring-blooming pussy willow, Salix spp, and summer-blooming yarrow, Achillea millefolium. Yarrow flowers cannot pollinate themselves and rely on the service of small bees.
“When spring comes, instead of cutting your garden back to the ground, consider removing only the top of the stems to encourage opportunistic bees like small carpenter bees to make nesting cells to overwinter in,” says Allsup.
For more information on how to support pollinators, contact a local Extension horticulture expert at go.illinois.edu/ExtensionOffice.
My Town: Clint Walker’s memories of Coles County as pulled from the archives
Cosmic Blue Comics
From the Nov. 22, 1992, Journal Gazette, this photo of Cosmic Blue Comics in Mattoon; where I spent virtually every Saturday afternoon for about two years. That small back room you see just off to the right of the Coca-Cola sign was where they kept the many, and I mean many, long-boxes of back issues. I still own my bagged copy of “Tales of the Beanworld” issue No. 1 that I found back there. Sadly, this location is now just a “greenspace”.
Mattoon Arcade
Pictured, Shelbyville’s Bob Murray from the June 2, 1982, Journal Gazette, displaying his dominance over the TRON arcade game at the “Carousel Time” arcade at the Cross County Mall, later to be the Aladdin’s Castle, soon thereafter to be not a thing anymore. I spent just about every Saturday at that arcade, perhaps with that exact same haircut. No overalls, though. I was more of an “Ocean Pacific” kind of kid.
Icenogle’s
Pictured, from the Nov. 28, 1988, Journal Gazette, Icenogle’s grocery store. Being from Cooks Mills, we didn’t often shop at Icenogle’s…but when we did, even as a kid, I knew it was the way a grocery store is supposed to be in a perfect world, and that’s not just because they had wood floors, comic books on the magazine rack, or plenty, and I mean plenty, of trading cards in wax packs.
Cooks Mills
I had long since moved away from Cooks Mills by the time this Showcase item about Adam’s Groceries ran in the June 13, 1998, Journal Gazette, but there was a time when I very well could have been one of those kids in that photo; for if it was summer, and you had a bike, and you lived in Cooks Mills, that’s where you ended up. At last report, they still had Tab in the Pepsi-branded cooler in the back. I’m seriously considering asking my money guy if I could afford to reopen this place.
Mister Music
Pictured, from the July 16, 1987, Journal Gazette, this ad for Mister Music, formerly located in the Cross County Mall. I wasn’t buying records at that age, but I would eventually, and that’s where it all went down. If you don’t think it sounds “cool” to hang out at a record store with your buddies on a Friday night, a piping-hot driver’s license fresh in your wallet, you’d be right. But it’s the best a geek like me could do. Wherever you are today, owners of Mister Music, please know that a Minutemen album I found in your cheap bin changed my life.
Sound Source Guitar Throw
Portrait of the author as a young man, about to throw a guitar through a target at that year’s Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest, from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette. Check out my grunge-era hoodie, and yes…look carefully, those are Air Jordans you see on my feet. Addendum: despite what the cutline says, I did not win a guitar.
Pictured, clipped from the online archives at JG-TC.com, a photo from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette of Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest winner, and current JG-TC staff writer, Clint Walker.
Vette’s
Here today, gone tomorrow, Vette’s Teen Club, from the June 20, 1991, Journal Gazette. I wasn’t “cool” enough to hang out at Vette’s back in it’s “heyday,” and by “cool enough” I mean, “not proficient enough in parking lot fights.” If only I could get a crack at it now.
FutureGen
FutureGen: The end of the beginning, and eventually, the beginning of the end, from the Dec. 19, 2007, JG-TC. I wish I had been paying more attention at the time. I probably should have been reading the newspaper.
