Marion County Naturalist Marla Mertz tells KNIA/KRLS News spring ephemerals are beginning to show themselves.

Mertz tells KNIA/KRLS News, “We’ve got a lot of wild flowers that are starting to come up which are first pollinators. They also used to be first foods for the settlers here, but right now the Snow Trillium is in full bloom and there are only a few places that we have that. The honey bees and the queen eastern bees have been foraging and pollinating that. Of course they’re getting their reward of food.”

She adds, pollination begins while the nectar food supports the pollinators.