Baltimore (Euphydryas phaeton) nectaring at daisy(Agryanthemum)

Pollination syndromes are suites of traits of flowers aimed at attracting a particular type of pollinator (Faegri & van der Pijl, 1979; Proctor et al. A flower, also known as a bloom or Blossom, is the reproductive structure found in Flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also A pollinator is the biotic agent ( vector) that moves Pollen from the male Anthers of a Flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish 1996). The traits include flower shape, size, colour, reward type and amount, nectar composition, timing, etc. For example, tubular red flowers with copious nectar attract birds; nasty smelling flowers attract flies, etc. The syndromes are the product of convergent evolution in response to similar selection pressures. Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages Natural selection is the process by which favorable Heritable traits become more common in successive Generations of a Population of

Abiotic pollination syndromes

These don’t aim to attract animal pollinators. Nevertheless, they have suites of shared traits.

Plantago media, pollinated by wind or insects

Wind pollination (anemophily)

Flowers may be small and inconspicuous, green and not showy. Plantago media, known as the hoary plantain, is a species of genus Plantago native to central Europe and introduced to parts of the north-east See also Pollination syndrome Anemophily or wind pollination is a form of Pollination whereby Pollen is distributed by Wind They produce enormous numbers of tiny pollen grains (hence wind-pollinated plants may be allergens, but seldom are animal-pollinated plants allergenic). Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of microgametophytes ( pollen grains) which produce the male Gametes (sperm cells of An allergen is a nonparasitic Antigen capable of stimulating a Type-I hypersensitivity reaction in atopic individuals They have large feathery stigmas to catch the pollen grains. They grow in low-diversity stands and are among the taller species in their communities. Insects may visit them to collect pollen, but they are not the most effective pollinators and exert little selection pressure on them.

Water pollination (hydrophily)

Water-pollinated plants are aquatic. See also Pollination syndrome Hydrophily is a fairly uncommon form of Pollination whereby Pollen is distributed by the flow of Waters Aquatic plants &mdash also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes &mdash are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments Their flowers tend to be small and inconspicuous with lots of pollen grains and large, feathery stigmas to catch the pollen. Many aquatic plants are insect-pollinated, with flowers that emerge into the air.

Biotic pollination syndromes

Sunflower pollinated by butterflies and bees

Bee pollination (melittophily)

Bee-pollinated flowers tend to fall into two classes:

• Showy, open, bowl-shaped flowers that are relatively unspecialized (e. The sunflower ( Helianthus annuus) is an Annual plant in the family Asteraceae and native to the Americas, with a large flowering Bees are flying Insects closely related to Wasps and Ants Bees are a Monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea g. wild roses, sunflowers)
• Showy, complicated, non-radially symmetric flowers that are more specialized (e. The sunflower ( Helianthus annuus) is an Annual plant in the family Asteraceae and native to the Americas, with a large flowering g. peas, foxgloves)

Some bee flowers tend to be yellow or blue, often with ultraviolet nectar guides and scent. A pea (inaccurately called a '''sweet pea''' by food distubutors is most commonly the small spherical Seed or the seed-pod of the Legume Pisum Nectar guides are patterns seen in some Flowers that guide pollinators to the nectar and Pollen. Nectar, pollen, or both are offered as rewards in varying amounts. Nectar is a Sugar -rich liquid produced by plants It is produced either by the Flowers in which it attracts pollinating animals or by extrafloral The sugar in the nectar tends to be sucrose-dominated. Solubility of Pure SucroseTemperature(Cg

There are diverse types of bees, however. Honeybees, bumblebees, orchid bees, etc are large groups that are quite distinctive in size, tongue length and behaviour (some solitary, some colonial). This article refers collectively to all true honey bees for the "common" domesticated honey bee see European honey bee Honey bees A bumblebee (or bumble bee) is any member of the Bee Genus Bombus, in the family Apidae; there are over 250 known species primarily Euglossine bees, also called orchid bees, are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior. The tongue is the large bundle of Skeletal muscles on the floor of the Mouth that manipulates Food for chewing and swallowing (deglutition Thus generalization about bees is difficult (Fenster at al. 2004. ) Some plants can only be pollinated by bees because their anthers release pollen internally, and it must be shaken out by buzz pollination. The stamen ( Plural stamina or stamens, from Latin stamen meaning "thread of the warp " is the male Sonication or buzz pollination is a technique used by some bees to release pollen which is more or less firmly held by the anthers which makes Pollination more efficient Bees are the only animals that perform this behaviour.

Bee pollination from mobile beehives is of great economic value for orchards such as apple or almond. A beehive is in a general sense an enclosed structure in which some species of Honey bees (genus Apis) live and raise their young An orchard is an intentional planting of Trees or Shrubs maintained for Food production. The apple is the pomaceous Fruit of the apple tree Species Malus domestica in the Rose family Rosaceae. The Almond ( Prunus dulcis, syn Prunus amygdalus Batsch Amygdalus communis L

Butterfly pollination (psychophily)

Butterfly-pollinated flowers tend to be large and showy, pink or lavender in colour, frequently have a landing area, and are usually scented. A butterfly is an Insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a Since butterflies do not digest pollen (with one exception), more nectar is offered than pollen. Digestion is the breaking down of chemicals in the body into a form that can be absorbed The flowers have simple nectar guides with the nectaries usually hidden in narrow tubes or spurs, reached by the long tongue of the butterlies.

Hesperoyucca whipplei (moth-pollinated)

Moth pollination (phalaenophily)

Day-flying sphinx moth nectaring on Brazilian vervain

Among the more important moth pollinators are the hawk moths (Sphingidae). Yucca whipplei (syn Hesperoyucca whipplei; Our Lord's Candle, Spanish Bayonet, Quixote Yucca, Chaparral Yucca, A moth is an Insect closely related to the Butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. For a complete species list of this family see the Sphingidae species list. For a complete species list of this family see the Sphingidae species list. Their behaviour is similar to hummingbirds: they hover in front of flowers with rapid wingbeats. Hummingbirds are Birds in the family Trochilidae, and are endemic to the Americas. Most are nocturnal or crepuscular. As an Animal behavior, nocturnality describes sleeping during the Daytime and being active at Night - the opposite of the diurnal Crepuscular is a term used to describe animals that are primarily active during Twilight, hence at Dawn and at Dusk. So moth-pollinated flowers tend to be white, night-opening, large and showy with tubular corollas and a strong, sweet scent produced in the evening, night or early morning. A petal (from Ancient Greek petalon "leaf" "thin plate" regarded as a highly modified leaf is one member or part of the corolla A lot of nectar is produced to fuel the high metabolic rates needed to power their flight. Basal metabolic rate ( BMR) is the amount of energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment in the post-absorptive state (meaning that the digestive system

Other moths (Noctuids, Geometrids, Pyralids, for example) fly slowly and settle on the flower. The Noctuidae or Owlet moths are a family of robustly-built Moths that includes more than 35000 known species out of possibly 100000 total in more than 4200 genera Geometroidea is the superfamily of geometrid moths in the Lepidoptera. The Pyraloidea ( pyraloid moths) are a Moth Superfamily containing about 16000 described Species worldwide (Munroe & Solis 1998 and probably They do not require as much nectar as the fast-flying hawk moths, and the flowers tend to be small (though they may be aggregated in heads) (Oliveira et al. 2004).

Sapromyophilous Stapelia gigantea

Fly pollination (myophily and sapromyophily)

There are two types of fly pollination: myophily and sapromyophily. The genus Stapelia consists of around 40 Species of low growing spineless stem Succulent Plants predominantly from South Africa Stapelia gigantea is a Flowering plant in the Stapelia genus of plants commonly referred to as the Carrion Plant (although the name A diversity of flies (particularly bee flies (Bombyliidae), hoverflies (Syrphidae), etc. Bombyliidae is a large Family of flies with hundreds of genera, although their life cycles are not well known Flies in the Diptera family Syrphidae are commonly known as hoverflies, flower flies, or Syrphid flies. ) feed on nectar and pollen as adults, and regularly visit flowers, while male fruit flies (Tephritidae) are attracted to and feed on specific floral attractant, which acts as fly's sex pheromone precursor or booster, of some wild orchids (Bulbophyllum species - with highly moveable lip) that do not produce nectar (Tan & Nishida, 2000; Tan et al. Tephritidae is one of two fly families referred to as " fruit flies. , 2006). These are the myophiles. Sapromyophiles, on the other hand, normally visit dead animals or dung. They are attracted to flowers that mimic these odoriferous items. They obtain no reward and would quickly leave, but the plant may have traps to slow them down. These plants have a strong, unpleasant odor, and are brown or orange in color. They are not as common as myophilous plants (Jones & Jones 2001). Myophilous plants do not tend to have a strong scent, and tend to be purple, violet, blue, and white, open dishes, or tubes (Kastinger & Weber, 2001). Flies generally utilize many different sources of food making their pollinating activity infrequent and unreliable. However, their sheer numbers and the presence of some flies throughout the year make them important pollinators for many plants (Gullan & Cranston, 2005).

Flies tend to be important pollinators in high-altitude and high-latitude systems, where they are numerous and other insect groups may be lacking (Larson et al. Altitude is the Elevation of a point or object from a known level or datum (plural data Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi ( Φ) gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body north or south of the , 2001).

Bird pollination (ornithophily)

Although hummingbirds are the most familiar nectar-feeding birds for North Americans, there are analogous species in other parts of the world: sunbirds, honeyeaters, flowerpeckers, honeycreepers, bananaquits, flowerpiercers, lories and lorikeets (Lotz & Schondube, 2006). Hummingbirds are Birds in the family Trochilidae, and are endemic to the Americas. Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. The sunbirds and '''spiderhunters''' are very small Passerine Birds which feed largely on Nectar, although they will also take insects especially The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, The flowerpeckers are a family of Passerine Birds found in tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines Also see Honeycreeper (disambiguation. The typical honeycreepers are small Birds in the Tanager family The Bananaquit, Coereba flaveola, is a Passerine Bird first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Certhia Diglossa is a Genus of Flowerpiercers in the family Thraupidae. Hummingbirds are the oldest group, with the greatest degree of specialization on nectar (Lotz & Schondube, 2006). Flowers attractive to hummingbirds that can hover in front of the flower tend to be large red or orange tubes with a lot of dilute nectar, secreted during the day. Since birds do not have a strong response to scent, they tend to be odorless. Perching birds need a substantial landing platform, so sunbirds, honeyeaters, and the like are less associated with tubular flowers.

African baobab (bat-pollinated)

Bat pollination (chiropterophily)

Bat-pollinated flowers tend to be large and showy, white or light coloured, open at night and have strong odours. Adansonia digitata, the baobab, is the most widespread of the Adansonia species on the African continent found in the hot dry Savannahs They are often large and bell-shaped. A bell is a simple Sound -making device The bell is a Percussion instrument and an Idiophone. Bats drink the nectar, and these plants typically offer nectar for extended periods of time. Sight, smell, and echo-location are used to initially find the flowers, and excellent spatial memory is used to visit them repeatedly (Von Helversen et al. Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological Sonar used by several Animals such as Dolphins Shrews most Bats 2003). In fact bats can identify nectar-producing flowers using echolocation, a talent that was only recently discovered (Von Helversen et al. , 2003). In the New World, bat pollinated flowers often have sulfur-scented compounds, but this does not carry to other parts of the world (Pettersen et al. The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia. Sulfur or sulphur (ˈsʌlfɚ see spelling below) is the Chemical element that has the Atomic number 16 2004). Bat-pollinated plants have bigger pollen than their relatives (Stroo 2001).

Beetle pollination (cantharophily)

Beetle-pollinated flowers are usually large, greenish or off-white in color and heavily scented. Beetles are the group of Insects with the largest number of known Species. Scents may be spicy, fruity, or similar to decaying organic material. Most beetle-pollinated flowers are flattened or dish shaped, with pollen easily accessible, although they may include traps to keep the beetle longer. The plant's ovaries are usually well protected from the biting mouthparts of their pollinators (Gullan & Cranston, 2005). Beetles may be particularly important in semi-desert areas, like South Africa and southern California (Jones & Jones, 2001). The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Southern California, or So Cal, is defined as the southern portion of the U

Biology

Pollination syndromes reflect convergent evolution towards forms (phenotypes) that limit the number of species of pollinators visiting the plant (Fenster et al. Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages A phenotype is any observable characteristic of an Organism, such as its morphology, Development, biochemical or physiological properties A pollinator is the biotic agent ( vector) that moves Pollen from the male Anthers of a Flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish , 2004). They increase the specialization of the plant with regard to pollination. They are responses to common selection pressures exerted by shared pollinators, which generate correlations among traits. That is, if two distantly related plant species are both pollinated by nocturnal moths, for example, their flowers will converge on a form most attractive to the moths (i. e. pale colour, sweet scent, nectar released at the end of a long tube, night-flowering), because the most attractive forms will produce the most offspring.

Advantages of specialization

• Efficiency of pollination: the rewards given to pollinators, commonly nectar or pollen or both, but sometimes oil (Buchmann 1987), scents, or wax, may be costly to produce. Nectar can be cheap, but pollen is generally expensive as it is relatively high in nitrogen compounds. A plant seeks to obtain the maximum pollen transfer for the minimum reward. Different pollinators, because of their size, shape, or behaviour, have different efficiency of transfer of pollen. And the floral traits affect efficiency of transfer: columbine flowers were experimentally altered and presented to hawkmoths, and flower orientation, shape and colour were found to affect visitation rates or pollen removal (Fulton and Hodges 1999; Hodges et al. Aquilegia ( columbine) is a Genus of about 60-70 species of Herbaceous Perennial plants that are found in Meadows Woodlands For a complete species list of this family see the Sphingidae species list. , 2002).

Pollinator constancy: these two honeybees, active at the same time and place, selectively visit flowers from only one species, as can be seen by the colour of the pollen in their baskets

• Pollinator constancy: to efficiently transfer pollen, it is best for the plant if the pollinator focuses on one species of plant, ignoring other species. Otherwise, pollen may be dropped uselessly on the stigmas of other species. Animals, of course, do not aim to pollinate, they aim to collect food as fast as they can. However, many pollinator species exhibit constancy, passing up available flowers to focus on one plant species. Why should animals specialize on a plant species, rather than move to the next flower of any species? Although pollinator constancy was recognized by Aristotle, we don’t fully understand the benefits to animals (Gegear and Laverty, 2005). Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The most common hypothesis is that pollinators must learn to handle particular types of flowers, and they have limited capacity to learn different types. They can only efficiently gather rewards from one type of flower.

Advantages of generalization

Pollinators fluctuate in abundance and activity independently of their plants (Petterson, 1991), and any one species may fail to pollinate a plant in a particular year, thus a plant may be at an advantage if it attracts several species or types of pollinators, ensuring pollen transfer every year. Plants do, in many species, have the back-up option of self-pollination, if they are not self-incompatible.

Criticisms of the syndromes

Some species of plants are visited only by one type or species of animal. These plants often conform to the expectations from the syndromes. Yet pollination syndromes have been criticized because biologists observe that many plant species are visited by very different pollinators (Herrera, 1996, Waser et al. A pollinator is the biotic agent ( vector) that moves Pollen from the male Anthers of a Flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish , 1996). A flower may be visited by a bee, a butterfly and a bird. Also, relying on one species or type of pollinator causes variable reproductive success across years because pollinator population sizes vary independently (Waser at al. 1996). In such cases, plants should generalize.

Such criticism has led to re-evaluation of the syndromes. First, it is important to realize that pollinators should be grouped not taxonomically, but by their function: how they collect pollen and nectar, and how they find flowers (Fenster et al. , 2004). Such functional groups of pollinators may contain many species that exert similar selective pressures. Additionally, pollinator effectiveness is often more important than frequency of visits (Fenster et al. , 2004). A frequent visitor may be a poor pollinator, if it does not pick up and deposit much pollen or if it visits plants of many different species. The most effective pollinator may be less frequent, especially as visitation may vary over time. Some of the studies critical of the syndrome concept measure visits, but not actual pollen transfer (Fenster et al. , 2004). .

Analysing flower traits and visitation in 49 species in the plant genus Penstemon, Wilson et al. (2004) found that they could separate bird- and bee- pollinated species quite well, but could not easily separate different types of bee visitation. In Tasmania, Hingston & McQuillan (2000) found the syndromes did not usefully predict the pollinators. However, Fenster et al. (2004) concluded in their review that there is “overwhelming evidence that functional groups exert different selection pressures on floral traits. ” This conclusion is based largely on studies that either experimentally manipulate flowers beyond the normal range of variation, or that compare related plant species with different pollinators.

References

See also

• Pollinator decline
• Pollinator
• Entomophily
• Zoophily
• Mutualism