Most gardeners appreciate the importance of pollinators -- animals, chiefly insects, that carry pollen from one flower to another. Roughly three-fourths of our crops depend on pollinators to produce fruits and vegetables. We’ve domesticated honeybees (originally from Europe and Asia) to do this work. Native bees and other insects in North America are equally effective as pollinators, though. In fact, the southwestern U.S. hosts the most diverse set of native bees on the continent.

Some bees are tiny while others are large -- for example, the huge but harmless black carpenter bee, Xylocopa. Small, metallic green bees on my herbs are members of the halictid family. Other native bees closely resemble honeybees, with gold and black stripes and large pollen “baskets” on their legs. Copy artic

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