Ads
related to: plant and pollinator relationship examples chart for animals
Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
When both species gain from their interaction, mutualism develops. The mutualistic link between pollinators and plants is very well illustrated. In this instance, the animal pollinator (bee, butterfly, beetle, hummingbird, etc.) receives nourishment in exchange for carrying the plants' pollen from flower to flower (usually nectar or pollen).
This leads to shifts in pollination syndromes and to some genera having a high diversity of pollination syndromes among species, suggesting that pollinators are a primary selective force driving diversity and speciation. [5] [6] Ophrys apifera is an orchid species that has a highly evolved plant-pollinator relationship. This specific species ...
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 ...
These fruits and vegetables are important commercial products, but are also a source of food for wild animals. So pollinators "hold entire ecosystems together," Watson said.
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 ...
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]
Wild pollinators often visit a large number of plant species and plants are visited by a large number of pollinator species. All these relations together form a network of interactions between plants and pollinators. Surprising similarities were found in the structure of networks consisting out of the interactions between plants and pollinators.
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.
Ads
related to: plant and pollinator relationship examples chart for animals