Flower Colors and the Pollinators They Attract
Have you ever walked through the garden and wondered why some flowers draw in bees while others seem to be hummingbird favorites? Or why so many native flowers are yellow, lavender, or purple, while fewer are red, and almost none are green or brown? The two questions are related.
Flowers and pollinators have co-evolved in a mutually beneficial partnership. Over millions of years, flowers developed their colors, shapes, and scents to attract the right pollinators. Each pollinator brings different abilities: they vary in size, tongue length, food needs (nectar, pollen, or both), and how they see or smell the world.
This three-part series explores how flowers communicate with pollinators through color, scent, and form. Today we’ll start with color.
Bees
Bees are nature’s workhorses when it comes to pollination. They visit flowers for both nectar and pollen, which makes them especially important in the garden.
Unlike us, bees don’t see red. Their vision is tuned to ultraviolet (UV), blue, and green, which means they’re drawn most strongly to blue, purple, yellow, and white blooms.
Many of these flowers also have nectar guides — streaks or spots on the petals that act like runway lights, pointing bees to the reward. We can’t always see them, but in UV light they stand out clearly.
Garden examples: mountain mint, bee balm, goldenrod, ironweed.
Butterflies
Butterflies visit flowers mainly for nectar, though females also choose specific plants to lay eggs on for their caterpillars.
They have the ability to see a much wider color spectrum than we can — everything from deep red through ultraviolet. Their large compound eyes give them an excellent wide-angle view and help them track movement, though they aren’t great at long-distance focus.
This means butterflies are especially attracted to bright, warm colors like red, orange, yellow, pink, and purple — particularly when flowers are grouped together in big patches. If you’ve noticed a stand of butterfly weed or asters covered in fluttering wings, that’s no accident.
Garden examples: red bee balm, butterfly weed, native asters.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on Sweet Joe Pye Weed
Moths
Moths and butterflies are close relatives, with the biggest difference being that most moths fly at night.
Night-flying moths rely more on scent to find flowers, since color is harder to see after dark. They do see UV, blue, and green, which is why they’re especially drawn to pale or white flowers that reflect moonlight. Adding evening primrose or yucca to your garden can support them.
Day-flying moths (like hummingbird clearwings and other sphinx moths) also use vision heavily, and many can see into the red spectrum. They behave a lot like hummingbirds — hovering to sip nectar — and are attracted to red, orange, yellow, and purple flowers. If you’ve ever seen what looked like a tiny hummingbird at your bee balm or phlox, it was probably a sphinx moth.
Garden examples: butterfly weed, red bee balm, garden phlox, evening primrose.
Primrose moth on evening primrose. Image by D Gordon Robertson cc by sa 3.0
Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds are all about nectar. With little sense of smell, they rely almost entirely on vision.
Their color vision includes UV, blue, green, and red, which means they are especially drawn to red, orange, and pink tubular flowers. These blooms aren’t just bright to them — they also discourage bee visits, leaving more nectar for the birds.
Garden examples: scarlet sage, coral honeysuckle, red bee balm, red buckeye.
Ruby Throated Hummingbird on Red Bee Balm
Flies
Flies don’t get as much credit as pollinators, but they can be surprisingly important — especially in early spring, before bees are fully active.
They don’t all behave the same way, so it helps to think of them in two groups:
Flower-seeking flies (hoverflies and bee flies) are guided mostly by sight. They’re drawn to yellow, white, blue, and purple flowers, where they sip nectar and sometimes gather pollen. You’ll often see them buzzing over yarrow, dill, or mountain mint.
Trick-taker flies (like carrion and flesh flies) are after something very different. They’re attracted to dark, earthy-colored flowers that smell like rotting material. The flower isn’t offering nectar — it’s tricking the fly into pollinating while it searches for food or an egg-laying site.
Garden examples: wild ginger, pawpaw, jack-in-the-pulpit.
Paw paw flower with fly on top if you look closely. Image by Ron Kruger Public Domain Mark 1.0
Beetles
Beetles are among the oldest pollinators — magnolias were around with them long before bees evolved. They usually come to flowers looking for pollen (protein), though some chew on floral tissues or sip nectar if it’s available.
With limited color vision, beetles respond more to scent and flower structure than to bright colors. Many beetle-pollinated flowers are pale or greenish, open, and sturdy enough to handle their clumsy foraging.
Sometimes fragrance overrules color. For example, Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus) has burgundy flowers, but beetles still flock to it because of its strong fruity, musky scent.
Garden examples: Southern magnolia, pawpaw, Calycanthus.
Long Horned Beetle on Southern Magnolia flower. Image by platycryptus cc by 2.0
Summary & Takeaways
Color is just one part of the story. Pollinators respond to a combination of color, scent, and form — so a flower that doesn’t stand out visually may still get attention for its fragrance or shape.
Here are a few garden-level takeaways for working with color:
Don’t fight nature. Yellows, purples, blues, and whites dominate our native flowers because they’re what bees see best — and bees are the backbone of pollination. Lean into those colors in bold patches, then add reds and oranges to support butterflies, day-flying moths, and hummingbirds.
Group plants in patches (three or more) so they’re easier for pollinators to spot and more efficient to forage.
Be cautious with color-altered cultivars. Designer coneflowers in red, orange, or unusual mixes may please our eyes but often reduce pollinator visits.
Avoid a monotone palette. All-yellow or all-purple borders may look tidy, but they support fewer pollinators. Mix color families and stagger bloom times so something is always visible to every group.
By planting with pollinator vision in mind, we create gardens that are both beautiful to us and genuinely useful to the wildlife around us.
