Pollinators May Not Limit Native Seed Set at Puget Lowland Prairie Restoration Nurseries

by Jennie F. Husby, Carri J. LeRoy, Cheryl Fimbel

Row of Deltoid Balsamroot at Webster Nursery (2012)

Growing native seed at nurseries in non-native landscapes for planting back into degraded native ecosystems is sometimes an integral component of habitat restoration. Large quantities of high quality seed are needed for repopulating plant species stressed by invading species, habitat fragmentation, and climate change in natural areas such as the Puget lowland prairies in western Washington. Many flowering plants benefit from cross-pollination by insects to produce high yields of viable seed. In this paper, we investigated pollination of deltoid balsamroot (Balsamorhiza deltoidea Nutt.) and sicklekeel lupine (Lupinus albicaulis Douglas) at a native seed nursery compared to at a natural Puget lowland prairie to determine if poor insect visitation is limiting seed production at the nursery.

Read the whole summary in: English!
Read the scientific publication in JPE.