Ocean spray | Bugging You From San Juan Island

Why You Should Appreciate Native Plants: Ocean Spray Insights

Posted on June 25, 2025 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island Leave a comment

For the past few years, I have observed one of our native shrubs to see what pollinators are visiting. Calscape has recorded Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor) as a host plant to approximately 14 species of Lepidoptera. Yet, I have actually never seen a single pollinator visiting the cascades of snowy white, delicate blossoms. I’ve also heard from a handful of local folks on San Juan Island. They say Ocean Spray is “invasive” and should be brush-hogged. According to them, it’s a “fire hazard.” This view is disturbing to me. I felt it important to find concrete evidence of this native plant’s value in our ecosystem.

Well, the other evening, I documented the first pollinator I’ve ever seen visiting these blossoms. There is a gorgeous Ocean Spray out our bathroom window. I noticed movement in the upper portions of the shrub. It wasn’t windy, so something else was causing the movement. I went out later, around 9:00 pm, to investigate the cause of the disturbances. Can you guess what I found? Bumble bees!

I also experienced annoyance from another buzzer. A Cattail mosquito, Coquillettidia perturbans (say co-KEE-luh-tih-dee-uh PURR-tuh-binz) promptly discovered my bare arm. It slipped its hypodermic proboscis into my epidermis with effortless precision, a precision superior to any medical professional’s injection. I didn’t feel it at all.

Cattail mosquito (Coquillettidia perturbans)

I would describe the bites from these mosquitoes as a very mild annoyance. I didn’t have any after-reaction at all. It was certainly not anything like the bites from some of the other insects I’ve experienced here, especially not thrips. I’m definitely not a thrips fan! You can read about thrips here in case you’re interested. https://buggingyoufromsanjuanisland.com/2021/06/29/public-health-alert-and-some-free-advice/

Getting back to the other buzz in the Ocean Spray. The buzz I was so happy to discover is the bumble bee (Bombus flavidus ssp. flavidus). I didn’t make the identification to subspecies on my own. That was with the help of a fellow named John Ascher on iNaturalist. If you’re curious about his work, you can learn more here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/pollination-podcast/137-john-ascher-problem-measuring-bee-decline

Bombus flavidus ssp. flavidus

Bombus flavidus is a species of Cuckoo Bumble Bee, and one of the most widespread species in the world. These bees don’t have a worker cast like other species of bumble bees. They find nests of other bumble bees to occupy and invade these nests. The host bumble bee workers then rear the offspring of the cuckoo bumble bee along with their own offspring.

I hope my discovery leaves you curious about what pollinators visit Ocean Spray in your yard. My next goal is to make nighttime observations. I want to see what is visiting the flowers while they are still in bloom. I suspect they have nocturnal pollinators. If you find any, I hope you’ll report your findings with me. 🙂

To see more of San Juan Island’s invertebrates, please join and follow me on iNaturalist – https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=cyndibrast&verifiable=any . If you have never used iNaturalist, try it out! I love it because it’s a way to connect with other entomologists. It also helps me organize my findings into appropriate categories for referencing when I want to look something up.

You can also find my bug observations on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.brast.bormann or join one of the bug groups I help admin: Bugs of the San Juan Islands at https://www.facebook.com/groups/3594158544144419 or Pacific Northwest Bugs at https://www.facebook.com/groups/904079732957442/

Also, please don’t go crazy with the brush hog. Nature loves messy. Humans cause fires. We can do much on that end to prevent them by changing our behaviors and being more careful. Scraping the earth bare and/or parking out your parcel to be “fire wise” is actually not kind to nature. We need to protect habitat for the wild things, not eradicate it. Even mosquitoes have a role in the food web.

Thanks for reading!

Bombus flavidus ssp. flavidus

References

Brast, C. 2021. IT’S ALL CONNECTED! KNOW YOUR ECOSYSTEM – BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS LOVE OCEAN SPRAY (HOLODISCUS DISCOLOR). Bugging You From San Juan Island. https://buggingyoufromsanjuanisland.com/tag/holodiscus-discolor/

No author. 2024. Fernald Cuckoo Bee Bombus flavidus. Bumble Bee Atlas and the Xerces Society for Insect Conservation. https://www.bumblebeeatlas.org/pages/bombus-flavidus

No author. No date. Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor). Calscape – California Native Plant Society.

Mayer, M. 2021. Cuckoo Combo: Re-Classification Makes Bombus flavidus World’s Most Widespread Bumble Bee. Entomology Today. https://entomologytoday.org/2021/04/28/cuckoo-combo-reclassification-bombus-flavidus-worlds-most-widespread-bumble-bee/

Murray, T. 2024. Species Coquillettidia perturbans. Bugguide. Iowa State University. https://bugguide.net/node/view/26971

It’s all connected! Know your Ecosystem – Butterflies and Moths Love Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor)

Posted on May 19, 2021 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island Leave a comment

We all love butterflies and moths, right?

Did you know Ocean spray is one of our native plants? Lots of folks don’t even know this and label it as “invasive,” or a “fire hazard,” then rip it out of the ground to replace it with non-native ornamentals or worse, leaving the formerly healthy, forested understory devoid of vegetation.

Image from – http://nativeplantspnw.com/ocean-spray-holodiscus-discolor/

Did you know?

Here’s a bit of historical trivia – Ocean spray is sometimes called Indian arrowwood because Native Americans made use of its straight hardwood branches for arrow shafts. They also used oceanspray for treating viral and skin diseases. Other names for this plant are Holodiscus discolor, ironwood or creambush. There is actually a novel phenolic component in the plant called Stilbene a Xyloside that has been associated with varied biological and medicinal activities.

Some reasons I’d like you to appreciate Ocean Spray….

It is a larval host plant to some of our native butterflies and moths. These include the beautiful Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon), Spring Azure (Celastrina sp.), Lorquin’s Admiral (Limenitis lorquini), and Gray Hairstreaks (Strymon melinus). One particularly notable one here on our island is the delicate Fairy Moth (Adela septentrionella). Calscape (California Native Plant Society) lists 14 confirmed species of Lepidoptera associated with Ocean Spray (and 23 as likely) for a total of 37 species native to the state of CA. I could not find published studies for this in WA state, but link the Calscape page here https://calscape.org/plantleps.php?hostsloc=california&species=Holodiscus+discolor
Ocean spray provides cover and forage for wildlife. Birds, small amphibians, and deer rely on native plant species like Ocean Spray that make up part of the forest understory and are a component of a healthy ecosystem. Fire-scaping may be on your mind, but one way around this is to look at installing adequate water cachement around your home to help keep vegetation from drying out and dying in late summer and fall. We want to live in the forest, but if we remove the native understory, we risk altering the landscape even more and losing these beautiful creatures!
Ocean Spray flowers provide pollen and nectar for native bees! 🐝