By DANA ECELBERGER
Los Alamos Sustainability Alliance

• • • • • Did you know? New Mexico has a surprising number of native pollinators: bees of all shapes and sizes, flies, butterflies, wasps, birds, bats and more, but bees are the hardest working in the pollination department. Out of around 4,000 native bees in the United States, New Mexico has around 1,000 bee species! That is a full fourth of all the known native bees in America.

As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, many of us are thinking about love and what in the world it is all about. Some of us may already have found love, either as a romantic connection, deep friendships, love of place or work, or just generalized love of humanity at large. Love comes in all sizes and shapes. If there is a person, then there is surely a love to match.

But, it isn’t always easy to find, or to recognize once it is found. One might suggest that true love consists of a high level of compatibility. This might be the same life goals, or lifestyles, a love of hiking or wine or other similar characteristics. Or it might be more of the lock and key variety where one partner is outgoing and the other is more reclusive, resulting in a kind of dynamic state of balancing one another out.

In the insect kingdom, particularly among pollinators, love looks a lot like finding the right plant to match your size, the shape of your body or mouthparts, the bloom time, the pollen grain size and so many other features that we humans probably don’t consider when finding our perfect mate.

A bee works hard collecting pollen. Photo by Angelica Gurule

New Mexico has a surprising number of native pollinators: bees of all shapes and sizes, flies, butterflies, wasps, birds, bats and more, but bees are the hardest working in the pollination department. Out of around 4,000 native bees in the United States, New Mexico has around 1,000 bee species! That is a full fourth of all the known native bees in America. That is because many of the native bees are solitary and ground nesting; our sandy soil is ideal for burrowing.

We also have some very specific plant forms because of the dry climate and harsh growing conditions. Most of the pollination of these native plants is done by our diverse group of native bees. Not to be confused with honeybees, which are native to Europe and Asia, our native bees can be as tiny as a small pebble or as big as the monstrous bumblebees of summer.

Unlike honeybees, known as generalists because they can and will gather pollen from a wide array of plants, our native bees will often only gather pollen from one specific species or family of plants. And, not surprisingly, many of those plants can only be pollinated by that bee. In fact, we believe that plants and their pollinators have evolved over time to have this symbiotic relationship. Think of it as being able to only kiss one specific person because your mouth will fit together with only their mouth and no one else’s! How romantic, right? Well, it gets even steamier because some of these bees only pollinate cactus flowers. That takes a whole lot of love to risk being impaled to get into the beautiful flowers to pollinate them.

Why does all of this matter? I mean, who really cares about the love lives of bees, right? Well, over 75% of all food and fiber plants are pollinated by bees. Without bees we might all run around hungry and poorly dressed. A lot of fish, birds and other animals rely on insects for food as well. We aren’t just talking about bees. The plants are equally as important because, in some cases, one cannot exist without the other. Loss of habitat, urbanization, climate change, disruption of natural areas all contribute to the loss of native flora and pollinators. Plants are also important in erosion control, food for other animals and, of course, beauty.

A bee works hard collecting pollen. Photo by Angelica Gurule

The moral of this love story really is that we know its love when it feels right and when there is a reciprocity and symbiosis to the relationship. As any native bee would tell us, if she could speak English, we just fit together when it is right. So go on and bloom. Your honey- bee will find you!

For information on the county’s sustainability initiatives, visit the Los Alamos County Sustainability webpage at lacnm.com/Sustainability. For those with questions or concerns, please contact Angelica Gurule Sustainability Manager at 662-8383 or Angelica.Gurule@lacnm.us

Dana Ecelberger is a volunteer member of the Los Alamos Sustainability Alliance, comprised of Los Alamos County employees and community volunteers the team was tasked by the Environmental Sustainability Board (ESB) to educate the community on: 

• reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and 
• conserving energy and water, and
• promoting environmental stewardship.