In some of our water plants, such as eel grass, pollen is floated from one flower to another. In the tropics there are even bat flowers. Some of them provide a special lip or landing field with guide lines leading to the nectar stores deep inside. As the bee sips the nectar, the body hairs pick up pollen and transfer it to the next flower visited. Moths, unlike bees and butterflies, hover over flowers at dusk and night, preferring those that run to shades of white and very heavy fragrance.
Some hawk moths have tongues several inches long.
Fly flowers are mostly dull-colored and have rank odors. Some smell like spoiled meat, fish oil or stale tobacco. The pollen grains from various plants differ greatly in size, shape and surface markings. Some, like those of the pines, have air bladders which make them unusually light and buoyant. Grass pollen is smooth with a single pore, sunflower pollen is spiny, and pigweed pollen, when magnified, looks like the markings on a golf ball.