The Many Pollinators of Wild Parsnips

When reviewing the photos I took of wild parsnip I noticed that there were many insects among the tiny flowers. The odd thing was the number of different kinds of pollinators who were present.

It drew my attention to see several kinds of insects on the one type of plant. Was this because of the great taste of wild parsnip pollen? Or the fact that there were many flowers to collect the pollen from?

Here’s a series of photos that show ants, mosquitoes, flies of various kinds, bees and wasps alighting on the wild parsnip umbels.

Beetle Love on a Wild Parsnip
A little beetle love happening on a wild parsnip umbel.

Garbage fly and an ant feeding from a wild parsnip umbel.
Garbage fly and an ant feeding from a wild parsnip umbel.
A fly and sweat bee feeding from a wild parsnip umbel.
A fly and sweat bee feeding from a wild parsnip umbel.
Flies on a wild parsnip flower.
Flies on a wild parsnip flower.
Mosquito and ants on a wild parsnip flower.
Mosquito and ants on a wild parsnip flower.
Wasp on a wild parsnip flower.
Wasp on a wild parsnip flower.

Insects on the tiny florets of the compound umbels were diverse. Usually there may be a couple of different pollinators or feeders present when I’m taking pictures, but not this many different kinds of insects. Perhaps the parsnips pollen is especially rich.

The wild parsnip plants were quite abundant and that’s most likely the real reason so many insects were there – they were taking advantage of a plentiful food source.

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