Pick the Pollinator Answers
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Hardy fuchsia: hummingbird
The hardy fuchsia is adapted for hummingbird pollination in a variety of ways.
The bird is drawn to its red sepals, and the positioning of its pendulous
flowers allows the bird, which can consume more than its body weight in food
each day, to hover easily in place while drinking the flowers' ample nectar.
Pollen rubs off onto the bird's head as it feeds and is thereby transported
from flower to flower.
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Canada goldenrod: western honeybee
The honeybee is one of the goldenrod's best customers, collecting its pollen
for protein and its nectar in order to produce honey (a sweet treat that
doubles as an antibacterial agent). The goldenrod's flowers have adapted
through time to attract pollinators both visually and through food offerings,
hence their bright yellow petals and abundant pollen and nectar supplies. The
goldenrod's pollen sticks to the bee's body, moving with it from flower to
flower and leading to pollination.
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Comet orchid: Morgan's sphinx moth
When Charles Darwin studied this orchid and its 10-to-12-inch nectar tube in
the 19th century, he theorized that somewhere in the flower's native Madagascar
must exist a pollinator that has evolved a proboscis of similar length. And,
indeed, several decades after Darwin's death researchers discovered this rare
species of the Morgan's sphinx moth with its exceptionally long proboscis.
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Common blue violet: common blue violet
The common blue violet will sometimes form tiny, inconspicuous flowers that
look simply like buds that haven't bloomed. These flowers are being pollinated,
but through self-pollination! The pollen travels from the stamen down
into the flower's own ovary. In the instances at left, the violet flowers gain
the benefits of genetic diversity via insect pollination as well as of being
able to grow outside of insect pollinators' range via self-pollination. Note
the seeds in the self-pollinating "bud."
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Wild celery: water
Wild
celery grows in aquatic environments and has adapted over time to use water to
its reproductive advantage. This species disperses little pollen "boats" that
float around until they hit the stigmas on female flowers of other wild celery
plants. (The stigma is the sticky section of a flower that receives pollen.)
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Sumatran corpse flower: carrion beetle
Carrion beetles as well as a variety of other carrion insects are so attracted
to this odorous plant that they will crawl or fly inside in search of excrement
or decomposing flesh. The spadix (the large object seen here protruding from
the plant) is the source of the smell and is also covered in the plant's
pollen, which the pollinators unknowingly carry to other plants of the species
as they continue their search for food.
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African baobab: rousette fruit bat
Much like the hummingbird, the fruit bat prefers pendulous flowers so that it
can fly in place while feeding. Because the nocturnal rousette fruit bat uses
echolocation more than visual cues in finding flowers, these flowers had no
need to evolve bright, colorful petals.
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We recommend you visit the interactive version. The text to the left is provided for printing purposes.
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Created March 2007
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