A. “Many of the plants we see blooming at this time of year don’t get pollinated,” said Kerry Barringer, curator of the herbarium at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “Most of them, like your winter jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum, are not native to this area and are not adapted to our seasons and our pollinators.”

When winter jasmine blooms in central China, where it is native, there are moths, flies and small bees to pollinate it, Dr. Barringer said, but when it blooms in the Northeastern United States, pollinators are mostly dormant.

“A stretch of warm days can bring out some flies and beetles, but most of our pollinating insects are not active,” he said.

Dr. Barringer listed other winter bloomers, including the Chinese witch-hazels, Japanese camellias and some of the Japanese viburnums and cherries.

Most native species are dormant, waiting for warmer days. Those that bloom in late winter often have special adaptations for pollination. Some red maples, Acer rubrum, can be pollinated by wind as well as insects.

The skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, has “flowers that actually heat up to provide a warm haven for the flies that pollinate it,” Dr. Barringer said. They become so warm they can melt snow and ice. C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Readers may submit questions by mail to Question, Science Times, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018, or by e-mail to [email protected]