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Listmania: the strengths and weaknesses of lists of garden plants recommended to help bees, butterflies and other pollinators
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 20:19 authored by Mihail Garbuzov, Francis RatnieksPollinators are in global decline. One of the few ways in which the general public can help is by cultivating ornamental garden plants that attract pollinators by producing nectar, pollen, or both. Advice in the form of lists of recommended plants is available, but how good are these recommendations? Here, we overview a sample of 15 such lists and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. In particular, we found that the range of the number of plant genera per list was large (29–257) and that there was rather little overlap in the recommendations, even among lists addressing the same geographic region (e.g., Britain or North America). Furthermore, the lists often included poor recommendations, omitted many good plants, lacked detail, and were almost invariably based on their authors’ general expertize rather than on empirical data. Nevertheless, some advice given in the lists was good, because these recommendations were presumably backed by personal observations and less formally gathered data. The lists were also very appealing to the public, which makes them an excellent tool in communication and a useful starting point for further research.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
BioScienceISSN
0006-3568Publisher
Oxford University PressExternal DOI
Issue
11Volume
64Page range
1019-1026Department affiliated with
- Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2015-03-16Usage metrics
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