plant pollination

The Importance of Pollinators

“Pollinators are really a keystone group that other organisms

rely on,” says Eric Mader. “Pollination is almost as

essential to life as water and oxygen.”

It is estimated that at least 80% of

plants on earth rely on pollinators in

order to reproduce. Without pollinators,

many of our favorite foods would fade

from existence. Imagine -- no coffee, no

chocolate!

one of every three bites of food we eat is dependent on pollinators, such as bees, butterflies and other critters, that play an enormous role in plant reproduction. it's obvious that pollinators are valuable.

A pollinator is the biotic agent that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization or 'syngamy' of the female gamete in the ovule of the flower by the male gamete from the pollen grain. Though the terms are sometimes confused, a pollinator is different from a pollelizer, which is a plant that is a source of pollen for the pollination process.

Conservation is the responsibility of everyone

Conservation of plants and pollinators is very essential for today environment. It’s all depending on each person. You don’t need any position for this. For doing the work of conservation is like assembly you up to a life-support system ran by a bureaucracy of government programs and private organizations. You don't want to be in that position. However, that is where the majority of people have fortuitously placed themselves. By being complacent about conservation and relying or depending on others to do what is needed, we make ourselves vulnerable to the inevitability that they will cut funding for conservation or that their system will fail. The easy solution, do not depend upon others, do your own conservation work.

Pollination by birds

Ornithophily or bird pollination is the pollination of flowering plants by birds. This co-evolutionary association is derived from insect pollination. The association involves several distinctive plant adaptations forming a “pollination syndrome”. The plants typically have colorful, often red, flowers with long tubular structures holding ample nectar and orientations of the stamen and stigma that ensure contact with the pollinator. Birds involved in ornithophily tend to be specialist nectar with brushy tongues, long bills, capable of hovering flight or are light enough to perch on the

flower structures.

Phaethornis longirostris nectar feeding on Etingera.

Evolutionary shifts to bird pollination have occurred independently in many lineages of flowering plants. This shift affects many floral features, particularly those responsible for the attraction of birds, deterrence of illegitimate flower visitors (particularly bees), protection from vigorous foraging by birds, and accurate placement of pollen on bird's bodies.

Pollination, whereby pollen grains (male) are transferred to the ovule (female) of a plant, is an irreplaceable step in the reproduction of seed plants.