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.
This document discusses the challenges of sexual self-incompatibility in citrus hybrids, which leads to low yields due to ineffective self-pollination. Cross-pollination with compatible cultivars is ...necessary for adequate fertilization and seed production. Effective pollination requires mixing compatible trees within a grove, ensuring good bee activity, and minimizing the use of harmful insecticides during bloom. Pollenizer trees should be no more than three trees away from those needing pollination. Additionally, synchronizing bloom periods and early fruit harvest from pollenizer trees help maintain consistent fruit production. Honeybees are essential for this process, and one colony per two acres is recommended.
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.
To minimize interspecific pollination, it has been suggested that pollen is placed on different parts of a pollinator's body corresponding to the conspecific location of pollen pickup by the stigma. ...Although Pedicularis is regarded as a classic example of pollinator‐mediated floral isolation, such reciprocal pollen placement has not been demonstrated experimentally. This leads us to question previous observations of pollen release in Pedicularis species. Here, we show that pollen grains are released from the tip, rather than the basal opening, of the galea (the hoodlike upper lip of the corolla) in eight nectarless Pedicularis species, mimicking pollen release from poricidal anthers. We used safranin‐stained pollen within anthers to track pollen placement in three Pedicularis species, and showed that pollen was deposited on numerous parts of the bumblebee's body. However, fluorescent powder placed on the stigmas to detect the contact location on the bumblebee's body was deposited mainly on the major position of pollen placement in each of the three species. Such segregation of pollen placement and pickup between species sharing the same pollinator probably helps to reduce reproductive interference, but the positions of pollen placement and stigma contact on the bumblebee's body were not as precise as previously thought.
The idea of pollination syndromes has been largely discussed but no formal quantitative evaluation has yet been conducted across angiosperms. We present the first systematic review of pollination ...syndromes that quantitatively tests whether the most effective pollinators for a species can be inferred from suites of floral traits for 417 plant species. Our results support the syndrome concept, indicating that convergent floral evolution is driven by adaptation to the most effective pollinator group. The predictability of pollination syndromes is greater in pollinator‐dependent species and in plants from tropical regions. Many plant species also have secondary pollinators that generally correspond to the ancestral pollinators documented in evolutionary studies. We discuss the utility and limitations of pollination syndromes and the role of secondary pollinators to understand floral ecology and evolution.
Oilseed rape is one of the world’s most cultivated oil crops, and pollinators provide important pollination services for oilseed rape production. Yet managed pollinators have been used to pollinate ...oilseed rape due to the global decline in wild pollinator diversity. Overreliance on managed pollinators raises concerns about the contribution of managed pollinators to global oilseed rape production. It remains unknown if managed pollinators could be a solution for areas with low wild pollinator diversity. Here we conducted a global meta-analysis to analyze the overall contribution of insect pollinators to oilseed rape yield, and further examined the contribution of managed pollinators. We found that insect pollinators significantly enhanced oilseed rape yield by increasing the number of seeds and pods, but not by altering the average seed weight. However, large pollination deficits still persist for the natural pollination of oilseed rape. Compared with pollination by natural pollination and insect exclusion, releasing managed pollinators significantly improved global oilseed rape yield. These results highlight that managed pollinators could be a good solution for oilseed rape pollination in areas severely lacking wild pollinators, and their integration into current management practices should be considered in management plans. Future research needs to focus more on selecting high-efficiency pollinator species and developing appropriate releasing strategies to maximize the benefits of managed pollinators for food production.
•Insect pollinators enhance global oilseed rape yield by 34.82 %.•Pollinators increase the number of pods and seeds, but not thousand-seed weight.•Releasing managed pollinators can significantly increase oilseed rape yield.•Managed pollinators can be used to improve oilseed rape production.
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.
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