Dave Castelan / Staff

An important highway runs from southern Mexico through Arizona, but you won't find any pavement or road signs on it. It's called the "Hummingbird Highway," and it's a corridor of plants that hummingbirds, bees, moths, butterflies and bats pollinate as they migrate.

Pollen from one flower needs to reach a part of another flower called the stigma before the plant can make seeds. Sometimes the wind carries pollen from plant to plant, but most flowering plants need help from animals we call pollinators.

The Hummingbird Highway is shrinking because some of the land on it has been turned into farms, ranches and cities. Other parts have been sprayed with chemicals to kill bugs, but these chemicals can also kill pollinators. Some of these animals are now disappearing, and so are some of the plants they help pollinate.

You can help save the Hummingbird Highway by planting your own pollinator garden. Native plants such as yuccas and desert honeysuckles don't need much water or care to survive. You'll have a nice garden to look at, a place where you can observe the animals it attracts, and you'll be helping to provide food and maybe even a home for pollinators.

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