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This means that the core of the network is made up of highly connected generalists (a pollinator that visits many different species of plant), while specialized species interact with a subset of the species that the generalists interact with (a pollinator that visits few species of plant, which are also visited by generalist pollinators). [5]
One example of functional equivalence is demonstrated in plant-pollinator relationships, whereby a certain plant species may evolve flower morphology that selects for pollination by a host of taxonomically-unrelated species to provide the same function (fruit production following pollination). [3] For example, the herbaceous plant spiny madwort ...
Pollinator-mediated selection is an evolutionary process occurring in flowering plants, in which the foraging behavior of pollinators differentially selects for certain floral traits. [1] Flowering plant are a diverse group of plants that produce seeds. Their seeds differ from those of gymnosperms in that they are enclosed within a fruit. These ...
A familiar example of a mutualism is the relationship between flowering plants and their pollinators. [2] [3] The plant benefits from the spread of pollen between flowers, while the pollinator receives some form of nourishment, either from nectar or the pollen itself.
Pollination has driven the coevolution of flowering plants and their animal pollinators for over 100 million years. See also: Pollination and Plant-pollinator interactions In pollination, pollinators including insects ( entomophily ), some birds ( ornithophily ), and some bats , transfer pollen from a male flower part to a female flower part ...
Pollination is necessary for plants to continue their populations and 3/4 of the plant species that contribute to the world's food supply are plants that require pollinators. [78] Insect pollinators, like bees, are large contributors to crop production, over 200 billion dollars worth of crop species are pollinated by these insects. [71]
Plants fall into pollination syndromes that reflect the type of pollinator being attracted. These are characteristics such as: overall flower size, the depth and width of the corolla, the color (including patterns called nectar guides that are visible only in ultraviolet light), the scent, amount of nectar, composition of nectar, etc. [2] For example, birds visit red flowers with long, narrow ...
For the plant, the pollinizer, this can be an important mechanism for sexual reproduction, as the pollinator distributes its pollen. Few flowering plants self-pollinate ; some can provide their own pollen (self fertile), but require a pollinator to move the pollen; others are dependent on cross pollination from a genetically different source of ...