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"Pollination"
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Animal pollinators
Many plants depend on animals to help move pollen around, so that they can reproduce. Readers will see how hummingbirds, mice, bats, and other animals play a big role in pollination. Simple text and supportive photos and diagrams help readers understand key ideas and details about this important science concept.
Book
Pollination and floral ecology
Pollination and Floral Ecology is the most comprehensive single-volume reference to all aspects of pollination biology--and the first fully up-to-date resource of its kind to appear in decades. This beautifully illustrated book describes how flowers use colors, shapes, and scents to advertise themselves; how they offer pollen and nectar as rewards; and how they share complex interactions with beetles, birds, bats, bees, and other creatures. The ecology of these interactions is covered in depth, including the timing and patterning of flowering, competition among flowering plants to attract certain visitors and deter others, and the many ways plants and animals can cheat each other.
eBook
Cross-pollination
Some plants need to have pollen spread from one plant to another flower in order to reproduce. Readers will learn the steps in the cross-pollination process in this book. Simple text and supportive photos and diagrams help readers grasp key ideas and details about this important science concept.
Book
The Pollination and Fruit Quality of Two Kiwifruit Cultivars (Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ and ‘AU Gulf Coast Gold') (Ericales: Actinidiaceae) Grown in the Southeastern United States
Kiwifruit is a new emerging crop for the southeastern United States that requires cross-pollination to set fruit. However, the pollination requirements for varieties grown in the southeastern United States are unknown. Through insect surveys and a bagging experiment, we assessed the pollination requirements of two female kiwifruit cultivars (Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ and A. chinensis var. chinensis ‘AU Gulf Coast Gold'). For each, fruit quantity (fruit set) and fruit quality (weight, size, seed count, firmness, soluble solid content, and dry matter) were compared among three pollination treatments (wind, insect, and artificial pollination). Low abundances of insects were observed visiting female flowers of both kiwifruit cultivars, and therefore likely minimally influenced kiwifruit pollination. Artificial pollination resulted in the greatest percentages of fruit set and marketable fruits, followed by insect and wind pollination. Artificial pollination resulted in fruits that were greater in weight, size, and contained more seeds, than insect- and wind-pollinated fruits. Firmness and soluble solid content did not vary greatly between pollination treatments, yet were greater in ‘AU Golden Sunshine'. Dry matter content did not vary greatly between pollination treatments or between each cultivar. To maximize yields and optimize fruit quality, these results suggest that kiwifruit producers should place more effort into artificial pollination compared to wind and insect pollination. Future research should explore the use of managed bees (e.g., honey bees and bumble bees) within kiwifruit orchards to determine ways to utilize them as a secondary source for pollination needs.
Journal Article
The diversity and evolution of pollination systems in large plant clades: Apocynaceae as a case study
Abstract
Background and Aims
Large clades of angiosperms are often characterized by diverse interactions with pollinators, but how these pollination systems are structured phylogenetically and biogeographically is still uncertain for most families. Apocynaceae is a clade of >5300 species with a worldwide distribution. A database representing >10 % of species in the family was used to explore the diversity of pollinators and evolutionary shifts in pollination systems across major clades and regions.
Methods
The database was compiled from published and unpublished reports. Plants were categorized into broad pollination systems and then subdivided to include bimodal systems. These were mapped against the five major divisions of the family, and against the smaller clades. Finally, pollination systems were mapped onto a phylogenetic reconstruction that included those species for which sequence data are available, and transition rates between pollination systems were calculated.
Key Results
Most Apocynaceae are insect pollinated with few records of bird pollination. Almost three-quarters of species are pollinated by a single higher taxon (e.g. flies or moths); 7 % have bimodal pollination systems, whilst the remaining approx. 20 % are insect generalists. The less phenotypically specialized flowers of the Rauvolfioids are pollinated by a more restricted set of pollinators than are more complex flowers within the Apocynoids + Periplocoideae + Secamonoideae + Asclepiadoideae (APSA) clade. Certain combinations of bimodal pollination systems are more common than others. Some pollination systems are missing from particular regions, whilst others are over-represented.
Conclusions
Within Apocynaceae, interactions with pollinators are highly structured both phylogenetically and biogeographically. Variation in transition rates between pollination systems suggest constraints on their evolution, whereas regional differences point to environmental effects such as filtering of certain pollinators from habitats. This is the most extensive analysis of its type so far attempted and gives important insights into the diversity and evolution of pollination systems in large clades.
Journal Article
Artificial Pollination Technologies: A Review
Pollination is critical for the production of many crops, and both insect- and wind-based pollination systems are increasingly disrupted by bloom asynchrony, weather events, and high demand for available insect pollinators. Artificial pollination systems can provide a security of yield even in poor pollination scenarios, and have been attracting increasing attention over the past decade. Here, we review pollen collection and pollen application technologies that have been employed to date. Major categories of mechanical pollination technology include: hand-pollination, handheld and backpack devices, vehicle-mounted devices, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and robotic and autonomous pollinators. The majority of the artificial pollination systems above are used to supplement natural pollination, but for some crops, these systems were found to perform adequately by themselves, including kiwifruit, olive, date palm, walnut, tomato, and hybrid maize seed. These systems often treat pollen as a system input, creating a chicken-and-egg problem in which the system is not economical without pollen and the pollen is not economical to collect without wide uptake of the system. To combat this, there has been success in developing mechanical harvesters for some crop plants (particularly almond and maize), but future work is needed for artificial pollination to be a commercial reality for the increasing number of cropping systems that are experiencing pollination deficits.
Journal Article
Experiment with pollination
\"Plants can form fruit and seeds when a plant is pollinated. Animals and wind help spread pollen from one plant to another. But do you know how insects pick up pollen from flowers? Or how each part of a flower helps pollination? Let's experiment to find out! Simple step-by-step instructions help readers explore science concepts and analyze information.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Pollinator shifts and the evolution of spur length in the moth-pollinated orchid Platanthera bifolia
Background and AimsPlant–pollinator interactions are thought to have shaped much of floral evolution. Yet the relative importance of pollinator shifts and coevolutionary interactions for among-population variation in floral traits in animal-pollinated species is poorly known. This study examined the adaptive significance of spur length in the moth-pollinated orchid Platanthera bifolia.MethodsGeographical variation in the length of the floral spur of P. bifolia was documented in relation to variation in the pollinator fauna across Scandinavia, and a reciprocal translocation experiment was conducted in south-east Sweden between a long-spurred woodland population and a short-spurred grassland population.Key ResultsSpur length and pollinator fauna varied among regions and habitats, and spur length was positively correlated with the proboscis length of local pollinators. In the reciprocal translocation experiment, long-spurred woodland plants had higher pollination success than short-spurred grassland plants at the woodland site, while no significant difference was observed at the grassland site.ConclusionsThe results are consistent with the hypothesis that optimal floral phenotype varies with the morphology of the local pollinators, and that the evolution of spur length in P. bifolia has been largely driven by pollinator shifts.
Journal Article