Pollination Syndromes

• Modern flowers may be generalists or specialists with pollinators

• Specialists ensure that pollen is being transferred from individual to individual of the same species

• Generalists ensure that pollinators are always available even when the abundance and activity of species change

Types of pollination

Bee pollination (Mellitophily)

• Color: Usually blue or yellow with ultraviolet nectar guides

• Shape: Open and bowl-shaped (radially symmetrical), or more complex and bilaterally symmetrical

• Scent: Variable

Beetle pollination (Canthrophily)

• Most ancestral version of animal pollination

• Beetles even pollinate non-flowering seed plants (e.g. Welwitschia, Medullosa, Benettitales)

• Color: Usually large, greenish or off-white in color 

• Shape: Flattened or dish shaped, with pollen easily accessible, although they may include traps; ovaries are usually well protected from the biting mouth parts of their pollinators

• Scent: Heavily scented; spicy, fruity, or similar to decaying organic material

Butterfly pollination (Psychophily)

• Color: Pink, yellow, orange, or lavender in color

• Shape: Large and showy flower or inflorescence with a landing area

• Scent: Usually unscented

Fly pollination (Myophily and Sapromyophily)

• Myophily: Flies that feed on nectar and pollen

  • Color: Typically purple, violet, blue, and white

  • Shape: Open dishes or tubes

  • Scent: Usually not scented

• Sapromyophily: Flies that normally visit dead/decaying animals or dung

  • Non-mutualistic pollination; form of commensalism

  • Scent: mimic the smell of decaying animals or dung

  • Color: Usually maroon or red in color

  • Shape: Open dishes or tubes

Moth pollination (Phalaenophily)

• • Usually open at night and may close during the day

  • Color: White

  • Shape: Tube-shaped, showy flowers in an inflorescence

  • Scent: Strong, sweet scent

Wasp pollination

• • Some flowers species, such as Penstemon and the Hydrophyllaceaeare, are pollinated by wasps

  • Pollen wasps (Masarinae) gather nectar and pollen in a crop inside their bodies, since they lack hairs like bees

Zooplankton pollination (e.g. aquatic eel-grass)

• • Marine seagrass, Thalassia testudinum, produce a carbohydrate-rich substance that houses their pollen 

  • Zooplankton eat the substance and excess pollen grains stick to their bodies, thus spreading pollen from flower to flower

Bat pollination (Chiropterophily)

• • Color: white or lightly-colored

  • Shape: large and showy; often bell-shaped or a ball of stamens, but can also have long tubes that are accessed by long-tongued bats

  • Scent: strong musty or fruity odors with large nectar reward

Bird pollination (Ornithophily)

• • Color: Red, orange, or pink

  • Shape: Larger flowers and tube-like

  • Scent: Odorless

Rodent and Marsupial pollination (Therophily)

• • The Australian Honey Possum is one of the few non-bat mammal species known to eat nectar and pollen as the mainstay of its diet 

  • They are pollinators for such Proteaceae plants as Banksia attenuata, Banksia coccinea and Adenanthos cuneatus