Pollination Syndromes - BeeBee pollination (melittophily) Bee-pollinated flowers tend to fall into two classes: - Showy, open, bowl-shaped flowers that are relatively unspecialized (e.g. wild roses, sunflowers)
- Showy, complicated, non-radially symmetric flowers that are more specialized (e.g. peas, foxgloves)
Some bee flowers tend to be yellow or blue, often with ultraviolet nectar guides and scent. Nectar, pollen, or both are offered as rewards in varying amounts. The sugar in the nectar tends to be sucrose-dominated. 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). Thus generalization about bees is difficult. Some plants can only be pollinated by bees because their anthers release pollen internally, and it must be shaken out by buzz pollination. Bees are the only animals that perform this behaviour. | Collection Accessions: | | {Page regenerated on Thu, 15 May 2008 06:39:22 -0400}
|
