Anyone that has ever tended to their own garden knows the importance of pollination because our prized veggies will not begin to grow until the act has occurred. The process of pollination, evolving over the previous 425 million years, can take a variety of forms, including wind-spread, insect, and self-pollination. Through evolution, plants have developed pollination processes that have the greatest benefit for their survival. In environments where pollinators are scarce or unreliable, plants may choose to spread their genetic information via the wind, achieving cross-pollination over large distances. Other plants, however, may be unwilling to rely on the environment and do it themselves through self-pollination (with flowers that have both male and female parts). These two processes, of course, have their disadvantages. Releasing via the wind involves relying on chance, hoping that a pollen grain meets up with another compatible flower. Self-pollination reduces the genetic diversity of a species (Similar to what happens in the backwoods of Tennessee, and we ALL know what those people are like), leaving the plants more susceptible to disease.
By relying on an insect, however, you practically ensure that a pollen grain will reach some other flower. While in flight, insects will visit a variety of flowers, bump around for a few seconds, and inadvertently deposit the genetic material onto the carpel. To gain some insight on the amount of pollen that these insects carry on their bodies, observe the picture below of the honey bee (I took this picture!!!).
Once this occurs, magic happens, seeds are produced, fleshy materials that we eat surround the seed (at least for angiosperms), the seed grows in the ground producing another plant, and the circle of life begins again. But how are these insects attracted to the flowers? How do they separate rewarding flowers (those that have nectar) from those that are non-rewarding? These questions, unfortunately, are still trying to be answered. The current opinion, however, seems to be a mixture of floral scent and color. The next post will deal with these interactions.
Once this occurs, magic happens, seeds are produced, fleshy materials that we eat surround the seed (at least for angiosperms), the seed grows in the ground producing another plant, and the circle of life begins again. But how are these insects attracted to the flowers? How do they separate rewarding flowers (those that have nectar) from those that are non-rewarding? These questions, unfortunately, are still trying to be answered. The current opinion, however, seems to be a mixture of floral scent and color. The next post will deal with these interactions.
This just reminded me of dicots and eudicots. Of course, I don't remember what either of those things are... But I remember learning about them. :P
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