Sexually deceptive orchids lure pollinators by mimicking female insects. Male insects fooled into gripping or copulating with orchids unwittingly transfer the pollinia. The effect of deception on pollinators has been considered negligible, but we show that pollinators may suffer considerable costs. Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and was...

Distyly is a floral polymorphism that promotes cross-pollination through precise pollination. Psychotria mostly tropical genus of distylous Rubiaceae. Although widely studied in Brazil, some regions/species are still poorly explored, which hinders the understanding distyly system along greater geographical range. Here, we subtropical population brachyceras southern Brazil. For this, characteriz...

The success of sexual plant reproduction is directly influenced by specific interactions between the pollen and pistil. Light, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy techniques were used to evaluate the steps of pollination in sour passion fruit plants (Passiflora edulis Sims). In the compatible interaction, pollen tubes grow through stigma projections towards the ovary. The pollen grain...

Pollination is a well-studied and at the same time a threatened ecosystem service. A significant part of global crop production depends on or profits from pollination by animals. Using detailed information on global crop yields of 60 pollination dependent or profiting crops, we provide a map of global pollination benefits on a 5' by 5' latitude-longitude grid. The current spatial pattern of pol...

Fifteen years ago, DeLone and McLean published their original model of IS success, which received considerable attention in the literature. Given the widespread acceptance of the model, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether the model had been validated by research studies reported in the literature. By aggregating the results of 52 empirical studies that examined relationships withi...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Species that exhibit among-population variation in breeding system are particularly suitable to study the importance of the ecological context for the stability and evolution of gender polymorphism. Geographical variation in breeding system and sex ratio of Daphne laureola (Thymelaeaceae) was examined and their association with environmental conditions, plant and floral disp...

Landscape-wide mass-flowering of oilseed rape (canola Brassica napus) can considerably affect wild bee communities and pollination success of wild plants. We aimed to assess the impact of oilseed rape on the pollination of wild plants and bee abundance during and after oilseed-rape bloom, including effects on crop-noncrop spillover at landscape and adjacent-field scales. We focused on two shrub...