pollenation n : transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma of a plant [syn: pollination]

Biotic pollination, occurs when pollination is mediated by an organism, termed a pollinator. There are roughly 200,000 varieties of animal pollinators in the wild, most of which are insects. Entomophily, pollination by insects, often occurs on plants that have developed blue petals and a strong scent to attract insects such as, bees, wasps and occasionally ants (Hymenoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), and flies (Diptera). In Zoophily, pollination is done by vertebrates such as birds and bats, particularly, hummingbirds, sunbirds, spiderhunters, honeyeaters, and fruit Bats. Plants adapted to this strategy tend to develop red petals to attract birds and rarely develop a scent because few birds have a sense of smell.

Abiotic pollination occurs when pollination is mediated without the involvement of other organisms. Only 10% of flowering plants are able to pollinate without animal assistance. pollination produces some $40 billion worth of products annually in the United States alone.

Pollination of food crops has become an environmental issue, due to two trends. The trend to monoculture means that greater concentrations of pollinators are needed at bloom time than ever before, yet the area is forage poor or even deadly to bees for the rest of the season. The other trend is the decline of pollinator populations, due to pesticide misuse and overuse, new diseases and parasites of bees, clearcut logging, decline of beekeeping, suburban development, removal of hedges and other habitat from farms, and public paranoia about bees. Widespread aerial spraying for mosquitoes due to West Nile fears is causing an acceleration of the loss of pollinators.

The US solution to the pollinator shortage, so far, has been for commercial beekeepers to become pollination contractors and to migrate. Just as the combine harvesters follow the wheat harvest from Texas to Manitoba, beekeepers follow the bloom from south to north, to provide pollination for many different crops.

Pollinators and pollenizers

Pollination also requires consideration of pollenizers. (The terms "pollinator" and "pollenizer" are often confused: a pollinator is the agent that moves the pollen, whether it be wind, bees, bats, moths, or birds; a pollenizer is the plant that provides the pollen.) Some plants are self-fertile or self-compatible and can pollinate themselves. Other plants have chemical or physical barriers to self-pollination and need to be cross-pollinated: with these self-infertile plants, not only pollinators must be considered but pollenizers as well. In pollination management, a good pollenizer is a plant that provides compatible, viable and plentiful pollen and blooms at the same time as the plant that is to be pollinated.

Pollination can be cross-pollination with a pollinator and an external pollenizer, self-pollenization with a pollinator, or self-pollination without any pollinator:

• Cross-pollination (syngamy): pollen is delivered to a flower of a different plant. Plants adapted to outcross or cross-pollinise have taller stamens than carpels to better spread pollen to other flowers.
• Self-pollenization (autogamy): pollen moves to the female part of the same flower, or to another flower on the same individual plant. This is sometimes referred to as self-pollination, but this is not synonymous with autogamy. Clarity requires that the term "self-pollination" be restricted to those plants that accomplish pollination without an external pollinator (example: the stamens actually grow into contact with the pistil to transfer the pollen). Most peach varieties are autogamous, but not truly self-pollinated, as it is generally an insect pollinator that moves the pollen from anther to stigma. Plants adapted to self-fertilize have similar stamen and carpel length.
• Cleistogamy: pollination that occurs before the flower opens is always self-pollination. Some cleistogamous flowers never open, in contrast to chasmogamous flowers that open and are then pollinated. Cleistogamous flowers must of necessity be self-compatible or self-fertile plants. Other plants are self-incompatible. These are end points on a continuum, not absolute points.

Hybridization is effective pollination between flowers of different species of the same genus, or even between flowers of different genera (as in the case of several orchids).

Peaches are considered self-fertile because a commercial crop can be produced without cross-pollination, though cross-pollination usually gives a better crop. Apples are considered self-incompatible, because a commercial crop must be cross-pollinated. Remember that most fruits are grafted clones, genetically identical. An orchard block of apples of one variety is in effect all one plant. Growers now consider this a mistake. One means of correcting this mistake is to graft a limb of an appropriate pollenizer (generally a variety of crabapple) every six trees or so.

Honey bee pollination

Honey bees travel from flower to flower, collecting nectar (later converted to honey), and pollen grains. The bee collects the pollen by rubbing against the anthers. The pollen collects on the hind legs, in dense hairs referred to as a pollen basket. As the bee flies from flower to flower, some of the pollen grains are transferred onto the stigma of other flowers. Nectar provides the energy for bee nutrition; pollen provides the protein. When bees are rearing large quantities of brood (beekeepers say hives are "building"), bees deliberately gather pollen to meet the nutritional needs of the brood. A honey bee that is deliberately gathering pollen is up to ten times more efficient as a pollinator than one that is primarily gathering nectar and only unintentionally transferring pollen.

Good pollination management seeks to have bees in a "building" state during the bloom period of the crop, thus requiring them to gather pollen, and making them more efficient pollinators. Thus the management techniques of a beekeeper providing pollination services are different from, and somewhat incompatible with, those of a beekeeper who is trying to produce honey.

Other species of bees differ in various details of their behavior and pollen-gathering habits, and it should be remembered that honey bees are not native to the Western Hemisphere; all pollination of native plants in the Americas has been historically performed by various native bees.

Number of hives needed per acre (4,000 m²) of crop pollination

Apples: 1–2

Blueberries: 4

Cantaloupe: 2–4

Cucumber 1–2

Squash: 1

Watermelon: 1–3

It is estimated that about one hive per acre will sufficiently pollinate watermelons. In the 1950s when the woods were full of wild bee trees, and beehives were normally kept on most South Carolina farms, a farmer who grew ten acres (40,000 m²) of watermelons would be a large grower and probably had all the pollination needed. But today's grower may grow 200 acres (800,000 m²), and, if lucky, there might be one bee tree left within range. The only option in the current economy is to bring beehives to the field during blossom time.

Source: Delaplaine et al. 1994, Bee pollination of Georgia crop plants. CES Bulletin 1106.

See also

• Fruit tree pollination
• Hand pollination
• List of plants pollinated by bees
• Self-pollination
• Domestication
• Pollination syndromes
• Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser - A Supreme Court of Canada lawsuit involving a farmer who was sued by Monsanto for having genetically modified plants on his farm. The farmer claimed that the wind blew the seeds onto his land, and therefore did not violate any patents.

References

• Dafni, Amots; Kevan, Peter G.; and Husband, Brian C. (2005). Practical Pollination Biology. Enviroquest, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-9680123-0-7.

External links

• New "Pollinator Garden Wheel" from the National Academies provides information on pollination and tips on building a pollinator-friendly garden.
• Insect Pollination Of Cultivated Crop Plants by S. E. McGregor USDA 1972 (needs updating but still valuable)
• The Pollination Home page
• Pulse of the Planet description of buzz pollination
• Pollination syndromes images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu