page_title: Pollination
section_title: Animal pollination
hierarchical_section_title: Pollination / Pollination syndrome / Animal pollination
caption_attribution_description: Hesperoyucca whipplei (formerly Yucca whipplei) — Chaparral yucca; flowers.
context_page_description: Pollination is part of sexual reproduction in plants. It describes how the pollen grains get to the female parts of a plant. Pollen grains, which contain the male gametes, need to get to where the female gamete are.
  What happens is basically the same as sexual reproduction in animals. Each pollen grain is haploid: it has half of the DNA that is needed to make a new plant. During fertilization this combines with the DNA that is in the egg of the female part and a zygote is formed. In seed plants a seed is started.
context_section_description: Beetle pollination
  Beetle-pollinated flowers are usually large, greenish or off-white in color and heavily scented. Scents may be spicy, fruity, or similar to decaying organic material. Most beetle-pollinated flowers are flattened or dish shaped, with pollen easy to get at. They may have traps to keep the beetle longer. The plant's ovaries are usually well protected from the biting mouthparts of the beetles. Beetles are important pollinators in some parts of the world, such as dry areas of southern Africa and southern California, and the montane grasslands of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
  Fly pollination
  Some flies feed on nectar and pollen as adults (particularly bee flies and hoverflies). The flowers they visit often have a strong scent, and tend to be purple, violet, blue, and white.
  On the other hand, male fruit flies are attracted to some wild orchids which do not produce nectar. Instead, they produce a precursor of the fly's sex pheromone. Flies which normally visit dead animals or dung are attracted to flowers that mimic these smelly items. They get no reward and would quickly leave, but the plant may have traps to slow them down. These plants have a strong, unpleasant odor, and are brown or orange in colour.
  Their sheer numbers and the presence of some flies throughout the year make them important pollinators for many plants. Flies tend to be important pollinators in high-altitudes and high-latitudes where they are numerous, and other insect groups may be lacking.
  Bee pollination
  Bee-pollinated flowers tend to be yellow or blue, often with ultraviolet nectar guides and scent. Nectar and/or pollen are offered as rewards in varying amounts. The sugar in the nectar tends to be mostly sucrose. There are different types of bees which differ in size, tongue length and behaviour (some solitary, some colonial). Some plants can only be pollinated by bees because their anthers release pollen internally, and it must be shaken out by buzzing ("sonication"). Bumblebees are the only animals that do this.
  Bee pollination from mobile beehives is of great economic value for orchards such as apple or almond.
  Wasp pollination
  Wasps are also responsible for the pollination of several plants species, being important pollen vectors and, in some cases, even more efficient pollinators than bees.
  Lepidoptera pollination
  Butterfly-pollinated flowers tend to be large and showy, pink or lavender in colour, often have a landing area, and are usually scented. Since butterflies do not digest pollen (with one exception), more nectar is offered than pollen. The flowers have simple nectar guides with the nectaries usually hidden in narrow tubes or spurs, reached by the long tongue of the butterflies.
  Among the more important moth pollinators are the hawk moths (Sphingidae). Their behaviour is similar to hummingbirds: they hover in front of flowers with rapid wingbeats. Most are nocturnal or twilight feeders. So moth-pollinated flowers tend to be white, night-opening, large and showy with tubular corollas and a strong, sweet scent produced in the evening, night or early morning. A lot of nectar is produced to fuel the high metabolic rates needed to power their flight.
  Other moths fly slowly and settle on the flower. They do not need as much nectar as the fast-flying hawk moths, and the flowers tend to be small (though they may be aggregated in heads).
  Bird pollination
  Hummingbirds are the most familiar nectar-feeding birds for North Americans, there are analogous species in other parts of the world. Flowers attractive to hummingbirds, which hover in front of the flower, tend to be large red or orange tubes with a lot of dilute nectar produced during the day. Since birds do not have a strong response to scent, they tend to be odourless. Perching birds need a substantial landing platform, so sunbirds, honeyeaters, and the like are less associated with tubular flowers.
  Bat pollination
  Bat-pollinated flowers tend to be large and showy, white or light coloured, open at night and have strong odours. They are often large and bell-shaped. Bats drink the 
caption: Hesperoyucca whipplei (moth-pollinated)
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