Our Sustainable Garden: The Night Shift

An ode to nocturnal pollinators

by

Louisiana summers come quick, and they come on strong. My little family and I look forward to these days.  Though intense, they offer a certain sense of magic. During June, we are out and about in the morning and at dusk. Summer evenings in South Louisiana bring with them remarkable sensations. In this heat that causes humanity to pause, a new shift of life takes over. And it is not a quiet affair whatsoever. Our favorite summer pastime is cooking over the fire outside and sipping rosé past sunset while we listen to the cacophony of frogs and crickets. And while they burst into song, the moths, beetles, nocturnal bees and bats begin their night's work. We sit for hours to listen and watch. We grow moon vines (Ipomoea alba) on our porch and arches for the sole reason that we plan to sit beneath their display and watch the sphinx moths and bats visit each flower, doing the work they were born for. Every year I swear I will never again plant so many moon vines and each successive year I plant more than the previous.  

Back in April, I encountered the oddest three minutes of my life. My family found our home and greenhouses in the actual heart of a tornado. We watched our woods drop around our frail and questionably-designed old cottage. It was the sort of thing that makes you question the happenings behind the mask of the cosmic sky. We are lucky to be alive. 

Weeks later, the effect  we most ponder is the loss of our forest and tree line. We bought this place for the cathedral of trees surrounding the cottage. We built our greenhouse based on that treeline. I spent three years attempting to perfect my perennial shade garden for it to now be a full-sun garden. 

At the same time, with this magnificent loss of trees comes a more visible moon and broader night sky, with excellent viewing of all astral happenings, and all of the pollinator traffic, too. Night pollinators rely on highly fragrant flowers, as well as pale/white flowers that reflect moonlight. We can plant entire gardens that cater to these nocturnal needs. Though moonflowers are our favorite, we also plant night blooming jasmine, various gingers, bananas, angel's trumpet, Louisiana yucca, and crinum for this same purpose. There is no display, in sound nor sight, like moths and bats en masse surrounding flowers under the dark sky. Some like to call this interaction of white flowers and fluttering creatures a “moon garden”. I love that name. It evokes the night dance, a nocturnal exchange happening all around, while our eyes are usually closed. 

[Read more about this month's plant spotlight, Moon Vine, here.]

Some studies, such as those done by the Xerces Society and Butterfly Conservation, claim that as much pollination occurs at night as during the day, and with even greater efficiency after dark. Moths are masters of time and work faster than their diurnal bee comrades—visiting high quantities of flowers at a frequency perhaps unrivaled. Bats can travel farther than most other pollinators. Up until recently most research on pollination has been done solely on diurnal (active during the day) insects—resulting in an overall lack of understanding around nocturnal pollination. But with each new study, their importance is emphasized more and more.

Types of Night Pollinators 

Bats

Bats in particular are responsible for  pollinating a lot of our foods, especially our tropical fruit and nuts. Among these are bananas, avocados, cashews, coconut, berries, and agave. Yes, you can thank bats for your margaritas! 

(While on the subject of bat praise I would like to also note that they are excellent to have around your home for insect control. If you don’t want mosquitoes lingering around your porch at night, be thankful for bats and encourage their habitat when possible. A tiny bat is capable of eating over 1000 insects in one quick moonlit hour.) 

Moths  

Studies have also found that moths  play a great role in the pollination of strawberries and stone fruit—plants not previously associated with nocturnal pollinators. Stone fruits have single hard seeds surrounded by thick soft flesh; these include: mangos, peaches, cherries, avocados, plums, and more. Even raspberries are technically tiny stone fruits. Moths pollinate more species of plants than bees and butterflies do and are able to access a lot of flowers that bees and butterflies often miss. I see them as the backup crew. When dusk falls, they continue their work. They visit my gardenias, flower tobacco, morning glories, crinums and more.

Beetles 

These especially overlooked pollinators are often the first bug to interact with a new flower. One of our most diverse and large animal groups, beetles are ancient insects and were in fact our first pollinators. To this day beetles have a beautiful symbiotic relationship, and pollinate some of our most ancient plants, including our lovely native magnolias.