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This is a list of crop plants pollinated by bees along with how much crop yield is improved by bee pollination. [1] Most of them are pollinated in whole or part by honey bees and by the crop's natural pollinators such as bumblebees, orchard bees, squash bees, and solitary bees. Where the same plants have non-bee pollinators such as birds or ...
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 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]
Cross-pollination, also called allogamy, occurs when pollen is delivered from the stamen of one flower to the stigma of a flower on another plant of the same species. [8] Plants adapted for cross-pollination have several mechanisms to prevent self-pollination; the reproductive organs may be arranged in such a way that self-fertilisation is ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...