We studied the relative role of inflorescence traits, flowering synchrony, and pollination context for infructescence and fruit initiation in two Spanish populations of Arum italicum, a species in which inflorescences are the pollination unit. In this species, a specialized inflorescence organ, the appendix, is important for pollinator attraction. However, the short floral longevity and the pro...

Pollination is critical to fruit production, but the interactions of pollination with plant resources on a plant's reproductive and vegetative features are largely overlooked. We examined the influences of pollination, irrigation and fertilisation on the performance of almond, Prunus dulcis, in northern California. We used a full-factorial design to test for the effects of pollination limitatio...

 In 2007 and 2008, the influence of pollen source on the shell and kernel traits of resulting seeds and on fruit set was examined to evaluate the potential for Xenia or Metaxenia in Persian walnut. Pistillate flowers of ‘Jamal’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Hartley’ and ‘Pedro’ were crossed with the pollen of ‘Serr’, ‘Z60’ and ‘Damavand’. The pistillate flowers on each female parent were covered about one week...

the fruit set rate and yield of pear are commonly low due to insufficient pollination, as the species is unattractive to honeybees. to improve honeybee foraging behavior for the pollination of dangshan pear (pyrus bretschneideri cv. dangshansuli), nine methods were used to attract bees. a control treatment of colonies was fed with normal sugar syrup, while six other treatments were fed using su...

Detached pistils of Lilium longiflorum were labeled with d-glucose-U-(14)C 24 hours after anthesis and then sampled for the next 6 days to determine the appearance of label into exudate from the stylar canal and the stigmatic surface of the pistil. Results were obtained with unpollinated cv. Ace pistils and pollinated cv. Ace pistils, selfed or crossed (cv. Croft pollen). Limited data were also...

The pollination ecology of Eremosparton songoricum (Litv.) Vass., a rare desert species endemic to central Asia, was examined by a series of observational studies and manipulative experiments in two natural populations during 2007–2008. Results showed that the duration of flowering lasted 21 and 23 days, respectively, in Populations A and B from late May to late June in 2008. Anthesis of a sing...

Theresa M. Culley* Stephen G. Weller Ann K. Sakai Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California–Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. *e-mail: [email protected] Although much emphasis has been placed on specialist pollination systems, attention is shifting towards systems in which plants are visited by a variety of pollinators [1,2]. Until recently, examples of generalist pollinatio...

Pollination is a key ecosystem service as many crops but in particular, fruits and vegetables are partially dependent on pollinating insects to produce food for human consumption. Here we assessed how pollination services are delivered at the European scale. We used this assessment to estimate the relative contribution of wild pollinators to crop production. We developed an index of relative po...

According to the concept of pollination syndromes, floral traits reflect specialisation to a particular pollinator or set of pollinators. However, the reproductive biology of endemic, and often specialised, plants may require increased attention as climate change accelerates worldwide. Species of Roscoea endemic to the Himalayan region have striking orchid-like flowers with long corolla tubes, ...

Several neotropical orchid genera have been proposed as being sexually deceptive; however, this has been carefully tested in only a few cases. The genus Telipogon has long been assumed to be pollinated by male tachinid flies during pseudocopulatory events but no detailed confirmatory reports are available. Here, we have used an array of methods to elucidate the pollination mechanism in Telipogo...