Pollination

Pollination is an important step in the reproduction of seed plants: the transfer of pollen grains (male gametes) to the plant carpel, the structure that contains the ovule (female gamete). The receptive part of the carpel is called a stigma in the flowers of angiosperms and a micropyle in gymnosperms. The study of pollination brings together many disciplines, such as botany, horticulture, entomology, and ecology. Pollination is important in horticulture because most plant fruits will not develop if the ovules are not fertilized. The pollination process as interaction between flower and vector was first addressed in the 18th century by Christian Konrad Sprengel.

The process of pollination requires pollinators as agents that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel. The various flower traits that attract different pollinators are known as pollination syndromes. Methods of pollination, with common pollinators or plants, are: Biotic pollination and Abiotic pollination.

Pollination management is a branch of agriculture that seeks to protect and enhance present pollinators and often involves the culture and addition of pollinators in monoculture situations, such as commercial fruit orchards. The largest managed pollination event in the world is in Californian almond orchards, where nearly half (about one million hives) of the US honey bees are trucked to the almond orchards each spring. New York's apple crop requires about 30,000 hives; Maine's blueberry crop uses about 50,000 hives each year.

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 will 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 will 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.

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.

Pollination by insects is called entomophily. Entomophily is a form of pollination whereby pollen is distributed by insects, particularly bees, Lepidoptera (e.g. butterflies and moths), flies and beetles.

List Of Plants Pollinated By Bees!

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Much of the information used here has been researched from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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