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Pollination

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Ranked #5063 in Animals, #141869 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

 

While most of us give little thought to the bees that we see flying around us, their plight (and ours) has made the news in 2007.

With millions of our bees disappearing, we must face the fact that much of what we eat is dependent on bees for pollination. Without pollination we could be facing worldwide food shortages in the near future.

Want to learn more about pollination and how we depend on bees? Then scroll down, because we have gathered most of the imformation that you should know about pollination right here!

 

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Pollination Basics 

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.

Pollination News Updates 

Where Have All the Acorns Gone?
It explains how pollination affects nut production, saying that the clear implication seems to be that when you cut down enough hardwood trees, ...
Beekeepers to teach their craft
Without good pollination, grocery prices will rise and good produce will become unaffordable for many people, she said. ?Honey bees are important to our ...
President-Elect Obama - The Bees Need You!
Bees are vital to the pollination of over a quarter of all the crops grown, 250000 flowering plants rely on bees for pollination, and they increase the ...

Books On Pollination 

The Natural History of Pollination

Amazon Price: (as of 12/02/2008) Buy Now

The Forgotten Pollinators

Amazon Price: $27.00 (as of 12/02/2008) Buy Now

The Honeybee And 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 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.

Pollination Photos 

Pollination in process! by Sudhamshu

Pollination in proce...

Fly in Leucanthemum vulgare by Arthur Chapman

Fly in Leucanthemum...

Fly in Leucanthemum vulgare by Arthur Chapman

Fly in Leucanthemum...

I see a bee! by bensonkua

I see a bee!

8/10/07-Pollinate by Soulrider222

8/10/07-Pollinate

Bee and Friend by bensonkua

Bee and Friend

Busy Bumble Bee by bensonkua

Busy Bumble Bee

Busy Bee by bensonkua

Busy Bee

Om nom nom nom by MmMmMmMatt

Om nom nom nom

Covered in Pollen-1 by Phineas_Gage

Covered in Pollen-1

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.

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!

Pollination On YouTube 


California Pollination- A Day with A Beekeeper

Runtime: 4:31
6402 views
8 Comments:


Ophrys pollination

Runtime: 0:43
3226 views
3 Comments:


Pollination Studies

Runtime: 6:24
4682 views
2 Comments:

A Little Bee Humor 

For some great "bee" humor on t-shirts, buttons and gift ideas, Click Here! This design says "Beekeepers Have Little Stingers".

You can always find lots of original designs at Dene's Place!

Pollination on eBay 

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Pollination Related Links 

Pollination Beekeepers

Beekeepers with bees available<br /><br / more...1 point

http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/Pollinator-Declines.htm

Since agricultural activities were first recorded, more...0 points

What's Buzzin' in My Garden

"I don't know a bee from a wasp, a hornet, or more...0 points

Hymenoptera

The order hymenoptera includes our bee, wasp, and more...0 points

Bees: Buzz Pollination: [Pulse of the Planet]

Certain plants require bees to vibrate their flowe more...0 points

Pollination syndromes

Angiosperm pollination syndromes.0 points

Leave Your Thoughts On Pollination! 

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A little about this site. 

If you've made it to the bottom of this page I feel complimented because it means that something on this lens has peaked your interest, and that's why I made it. So now I'll tell you a little about myself.

As I said in my profile, I enjoy collecting and since I retired I've found that building these lenses is a great way to stay busy; And, I hope that I'm helping some of you out by gathering information on your favorite subject and putting it all in one place so you don't have to spend hours searching for it.

I spend part of my time designing t-shirts and buttons to help supplement my social security because, as many of you know, it's pretty difficult to make it on social security. My on-line t-shirt shop is called Dene's Place after my wife.

My "retirement" came a few years earlier than I would have liked because they found that I have an inoperatable tumor about the size of a softball in my right pelvic area. They still don't know what to do about it because for now it has quit growing. One of those "leave it alone and see what happens" type things.

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Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out my other lenses when you have time.

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

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
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JerryB

About JerryB

I enjoy collecting! It doesn't really seem to matter what it is, if it's old I'll hang on to it. So, most of my lenses are about collecting but Saving The Bees is worthy of having a lens so here it is.


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