Spying on ‘Fireworks’ Goldenrod Pollinators
Wildlife Finds in a Native Plant Garden
July 31, 2025
What do you see when looking at flowers? Hopefully, you see visiting pollinators like bumble bees. You may notice butterflies flitting about. Maybe honey bees too? These bigger insects draw all our attention. But if those pollinators are there, there are more! They’re just smaller, or not as numerous, so harder to find. I tell people this, but is it true? Being curious (and a scientist by education), I created a project for myself.
I watched a mass of a single goldenrod species in my yard for over a week, and photographed every insect I could. The amazing diversity and activity even surprised me! I’ll tell you a little more about the project and the goldenrod, but be sure to flip through the galleries below, arranged by Insect Order, to see everything we found. But first…
Here's a view of the 'Fireworks' Goldenrod in our front bed. That's me at the door, on my way to spy on pollinators.
What Did I Spy?
An amazing 122+ species of wildlife! Bees, flies, butterflies, moths, true bugs, wasps, beetles, and more! The majority of visitors were pollinators. Being late in the season, the quantity and diversity was particularly amazing. The obvious big pollinators were bumblebees and honeybees. While we had a number of butterfly species, they mostly didn’t hang around, preferring the nearby New England or Aromatic Asters. Moths of course mostly showed at dusk and early evening when temperatures weren’t too cold. Flies were the most numerous of species (45) - yes FLIES.
As always, wherever pollinators are present, there were predators. I only found a few of the typical predators – just one each of assassin bug, ambush bug, and spider. But there were plenty of wasps and flies that not only are pollinators themselves but will also parasitize other pollinators to feed their larvae. I saw predator yellowjackets and European Hornets, but mostly could not get photos. They’re flying bullies, knocking against insects and carrying off those they capture to take to their nests to feed young. It happens so fast it’s hard to see! The banner photo is my one lucky shot of a yellowjacket with a Cobalt flower fly prey.
Plus, there were some plant feeding insects that use other parts of the plant for food like the mirid plant bugs and spittlebugs.
As a note – these insects are likely already in our yard, but were concentrated at this small grouping of plants because of the abundant nectar. We maintain a continuous native plant source blooming in our yard from early spring until frost.
Surprises – We identified several new species we’ve never seen before. This relatively rare bee species was particularly exciting.
My Project
The ‘Fireworks’ Goldenrod (more to follow on the plant) started blooming on September 13th, right before we left town on vacation. On return, we admired the beauty of these plants from a distance, but it wasn’t until Sept 20th that I noticed they were full of bumblebees and honeybees. On that day we saw butterflies - a migrant White M butterfly and Gary found a Red-banded Hairstreak. The big pollinators certainly caught our attention! For days, this heightened activity of the big pollinators kept going. Finally, on Sept 24th, I decided to do as I suggest to others - spend time looking closer.
I had planned to spend only an hour focusing small and photographing everything. But I kept finding new pollinators and couldn’t pull myself away. An entire ecosystem of wildlife interactions had evolved around the ‘Fireworks’. That afternoon (and evening), I spent almost 3 hours shooting an amazing diversity of insects. Was I done? I decided that with a little more time the next day I’d just see repeats, right? Boy, was I wrong. Instead, I kept visiting the plant with my camera until I didn’t find anything new, which was mostly to the end of bloom. Gary got in on the fun too and found several species that I never saw. The majority of our observations were from Sept 24th – Oct 1st. The end of the pollinator activity was Oct 5th. While flowering may not have been completely finished, the Aromatic Aster planted around these goldenrods became the big pollinator attractant.
Next came the work to sort through images and identify what we shot. This was easy for some species and impossible for others. I’m fortunate to have learned many of these insects over the years, and Gary knows some better than me. We also received identifications from the experts at Bugguide.com. Some of the insects cannot be identified by photo, but all of the gallery selections are unique. I will be posting all of the pollinators to the iNaturalist project, Pollinator Interactions on Plants (PIP) of the NE US.
This Oblique-banded Pond Fly, along with many of the 15 flower flies I found, are convincing mimics of bees and wasps. Flies are key pollinators, particularly in the cooler seasons of the year.
About Goldenrod 'Fireworks'
‘Fireworks’ is a commercially available cultivar of Wrinkle-leaved Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa) known for its dense, plume-like flowering branches of small bright yellow flowers. It’s a gardenesque cultivar that deserves a place in home landscapes. While cultivars sometimes have reduced pollinator value in exchange for human preferred traits, that does not appear to be an issue with ‘Fireworks’. Goldenrods are important plants for late season pollinators despite poor public perception that they’re weeds that cause allergies.
In spring of 2024, we reworked a garden space, adding this Solidago rugosa Goldenrod ‘Fireworks’. That first year there were a few flowers, but this second fall, the plants created a large, dense, shrub-like mass full of blossoms. In natural places, the plant can be found in a range of habitats from old fields to bogs. Many nurseries suggest planting it in average to moist conditions. Fortunately for us, this versatile plant is handling our tough West facing slope with hot afternoon sun along the path of local deer that leave it alone. We were in drought conditions as the project took place.
Image Galleries
For any of the Slideshows, click on an image to activate a slideshow with titles and captions.
A note about the images. All of the images are cropped tight around the insect for viewing, but their relative sizes range from the monarch with a wingspan of 3-4 inches to a parasitic wasp under an 1/8 inch. Use the size of the flowers in the image as a clue as to how big or small each insect is. Many of these images aren't up to my usual posting standard as the goal here was to document and identify everything. Sometimes we only got a single shot. Dealing with the weather, particularly windy conditions, adds an additional challenge.
Bee, Wasp, Ant (Hymenoptera) Slideshow
There are 12 species of bees, 18 of wasps, and 3 species of ants. Click on an image to activate a slideshow with titles and captions.
Butterfly, Moth (Lepidoptera) Slideshow
There are 7 species of butterflies and 19 of moths. Click on an image to activate a slideshow with titles and captions.
Fly (Diptera) Slideshow
There are 45 species of flies. The first 15 are flower flies, most are mimics of bees or wasps. Click on an image to activate a slideshow with titles and captions.
Everything Else Slideshow
There are 8 species of true bugs, 3 of true hoppers, 1 orthoptera, 5 beetles and 1 lone spider. Click on an image to activate a slideshow with titles and captions.
