Related topics: plants · bees

Pollinator's death trap turns into nursery

In a group of plants that is famous for luring its pollinators into a death trap, one species offers its flowers as a nursery in exchange. The Kobe University discovery blurs the line between mutualism and parasitism and ...

How air pollution harms pollination

Pollination, the transfer of pollen grains from the male to the female organs, is an essential part of reproduction for the majority of plants. For many of these plants, this transfer is carried out by insects in search of ...

One in five Colorado bumblebees are endangered, new report says

On a cliffside at Mesa Verde National Park in southern Colorado, a fuzzy bee was industriously gnawing at the red sandstone. Making a loud grinding sound, the insect used its powerful jaws to drill tunnels and holes in rocks, ...

Wildflowers increasingly doing without insect pollinators

Scientists at the CNRS and the University of Montpellier have discovered that flowering plants growing in farmland are increasingly doing without insect pollinators. As reproduction becomes more difficult for them in an environment ...

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Pollination

Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes (sperm) to where the female gamete(s) are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself. The receptive part of the carpel is called a stigma in the flowers of angiosperms. The receptive part of the gymnosperm ovule is called the micropyle. Pollination is a necessary step in the reproduction of flowering plants, resulting in the production of offspring that are genetically diverse.

The study of pollination brings together many disciplines, such as botany, horticulture, entomology, and ecology. The pollination process as an interaction between flower and vector was first addressed in the 18th century by Christian Konrad Sprengel. It is important in horticulture and agriculture, because fruiting is dependent on fertilisation, which is the end result of pollination.

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