Without bees, the availability and diversity of fresh produce would decline substantially, and human nutrition would likely suffer. Crops that would not be cost-effective to hand- or robot-pollinate would likely be lost or persist only with the dedication of human hobbyists.

Who are the pollinators? Birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and most importantly, bees are pollinators. They visit flowers to drink nectar or feed off of pollen and transport pollen grains as they move from spot to spot.

Top 10 Pollinators in Agriculture

• Wild honey bees. Native honey bees are the most commonly known pollinator.
• Managed bees. Wild honey bees are not the only pollinating bee species.
• Bumble bees. Commercial beekeepers also use bumble bees to help farmers pollinate their crops.
• Other bee species.
• Butterflies.
• Moths.
• Wasps.
• Other Insects.

Honey Bees

There can be different types of pollination like self-pollination and cross-pollination and these two types also have subcategories, further, we will learn about them in detail. So let’s get started with understanding pollination in flowering plants also we will study about types of pollination in plants.

Although there are many different types of pollinators, there are just two main types of pollination—self-pollination and cross-pollination.

Pollination takes two forms: self-pollination and cross-pollination. Self-pollination occurs when the pollen from the anther is deposited on the stigma of the same flower, or another flower on the same plant.

Hand pollination, also known as mechanical pollination is a technique that can be used to pollinate plants when natural or open pollination is either undesirable or insufficient.

Various animals such as bats, birds, mollusks, insects and humans are frequent pollinators. Humans may be involved by hand pollination, in breeding efforts, where the natural sources of pollen are inadequate as in apple orchards, and where natural agents of pollination are scarce.

Bees and other pollinators serve as plant sexual surrogates by spreading pollen (plant sperm!) around to flower ovaries. A flower has to be pollinated to “set fruit” or begin to create the juicy ovaries that will become apples. Some fruits are self-pollinating, and can fertilize themselves without any bees involved.

Malacophily refers to when pollination of plants occurs through snails.

1 min read. Chiropterophily is pollination of plants by bats. Bat pollination is most common in tropical and desert areas that have many night-blooming plants. Just like bees and birds that pollinate, nectar-consuming bats have evolved ways to find and harvest the sweet liquid.

Malacophily : Pollination by slugs and snails is called malacophily. Land plants like Chrysanthemum and water plant like lemna shows malacophily. Arisaema (aroid; snake plant) is often visited by snails.

Pollination is a crucial ecological process that aids sexual reproduction in flowering plants. Although a variety of animals are known to bring about pollen transfer, pollination by snails (malacophily) has remained a rare and obscure phenomenon.

The pollination in which snails and slugs help in doing pollination is called Malacophilous and the flower which got pollinated by the snails and slug are called malacophilous.

In species in which staminate and pistillate flowers are found on the same individual (monoecious plants) and in those with hermaphroditic flowers (flowers possessing both stamens and pistils), a common way of preventing self-fertilization is to have the pollen shed either before or after the period during which the …

(a) Strategies adopted by flowering plants to prevent self-pollination:

• Herkogamy: Flowers possess some mechanical barrier on their stigmatic surface to avoid self-pollination.
• Dichogamy: Pollen and stigma of the flower mature at different times to avoid self-pollination.

Cross pollination is advantageous because it allows for diversity in the species, as the genetic information of different plants are combined. Self pollination leads to more uniform progeny, meaning that the species is, for example, less resistant as a whole to disease.

Position of Anthers. In some species, stigmas are surrounded by anthers in such a way that self pollination is ensured. Such situation is found in tomato and brinjal. In some legumes, the stamens and stigma are enclosed by the petals in such a way that self pollination is ensured.

Cross pollination which takes place with the help of birds is called Ornithophily and flowers are called ornithophilous flowers. e.g. Bignonia, Bottle brush, Butea, Bombax etc., Adaptations in ornithophilous flower: 1.

Although a variety of animals are known to bring about pollen transfer, pollination by snails (malacophily) has remained a are and obscure phenomenon. Snails are exclusive pollinators on rainy days, when bees are not active.

Ants are wingless and must crawl into each flower to reach their reward. Ants are more likely to take nectar without effectively cross-pollinating flowers. Researchers have discovered that some ants are not important pollinators, even though they visit flowers and may have pollen grains attach to their bodies.

Ants are usually considered beneficial in the garden because they cart away all sorts of debris, including insect eggs. I suspect the ants are gathering nectar from the cucumber blossoms. They won’t hurt the plants, and may even help with the pollination process by transporting pollen from flower to flower.

Ants in the garden provide soil aeration and feed on a variety of insect pests, but occasionally they may also cause problems for your strawberry plants. Ants sometimes visit strawberry plants to eat the sweet fruit. If you see ants on your strawberries, they are probably accompanied by aphids.

Ants play a variety of important roles in many ecosystems. As frequent visitors to flowers, they can benefit plants in their role as pollinators when they forage on sugar-rich nectar.

Ants help plants too. They form mutualistic relationships with plants to the benefit of both the ant and the plant. Violets, bloodroot, trillium and several other wildflowers depend on ants to spread their seeds away from the original mother plant.