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Which is a more effective pollinator?

  • Thread starter jimscott
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jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
The critters or us?
 
The critters or us?


That one is easy -- the critters. Just in terms of sheer biomass, consider of the tens of billions of insects alone (not to mention mammals and birds) involved at the moment to some capacity in pollination -- everything from wasps to beetles and flies, and the very experience of doing that job over the span of geological time. Currently, there is an absolutely disgusting gingko tree a short walk from my place, and, as luck would have it, the idiotic city planners planted the wrong gender as an ornamental. The female trees produce a fruit and stench which closely mimics either excrement or vomit (or a lovely potpourri of both) and whose pollinator is either a beetle or fly.

Leave it to the critters to find something so absolutely nasty to pollinate -- and to perpetuate it as a species since the time of the dinosaurs . . .
 
And they do it without intention while I butcher a flower with a toothpick and paintbrush, only to see a few seeds in a B. liniflora pod...
 
I think we do it more organized, but the bugs definately win.
 
I think bees are much more efficient than flies, but flies beat us. Not always by much, since I can get more fruit on one of my pawpaws by hand pollinating than the flies ever manage. But that's only in the lower part of the tree, where I can reach. My other pawpaw is always loaded with fruit and I wonder if it's self-fruitful, since the two trees are right next to each other.

By the way, whoever ordered the gingkos decided to save some money by buying unsexed seedling trees. I doubt a planner did it. It's very difficult to tell them apart until the females start fruiting, which is 20+ years later. By that time, who ever got congratulated for saving the town a few bucks on the tree order has retired. A number of places have planted only males of some other dioecious tree (I forget which one) and there was some controversy maybe ten years ago after some people said the pollen contributed to local asthma problems. The reason for planting only males is to avoid the fruit, whether it's stinky like gingkos (I think the smell is vomit) or just piles up under foot.
 
I think I'll toss a couple rotting pieces of fruit in a tray on the porch and see what happens.

How can they possibly get to more plant parts more effectively than us?
 
I tried to pollinate my first sarracenia flower, which happened to be a oreophila. I used the faq on this forum on pollinating a sarra flower. But until I saw another diagram (about a week ago long after the bloom) I could not find the stigma. I recall rubbing pollen on one or two of the stigma not knowing if that was it or not. I just kinda smeared pollen all over the flower. I sure hope I get some seed though I was planning on doing a small giveaway.
 
I think I'll toss a couple rotting pieces of fruit in a tray on the porch and see what happens.

How can they possibly get to more plant parts more effectively than us?

Volume . . .

Consider, for example, what would happen to many expensive food crops if bees are dying off in the numbers some suspect. Beekeepers often earn their keep pollinating whole orchards with their hives . . .
 
Critters hands down no question.

There was a program on PBS probably Nova I was watching a few weeks ago on CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) - the great honey bee die-offs. There's an area in China where all the honey bees have died and re-introduction has been unsuccessful. The area is famous for a fruit they grow there so the farmers turned to hand pollination. It takes many hours even days to pollinate a few trees which bees used to accomplish in minutes and hours.

The farmers have to wait for the pollen to ripen, collect the pollen, make whisks or brushes that they attach to long poles to apply the pollen. Very labor intensive for little or no pay - family affairs mostly. So far they are able to be productive but the feeling that it is a losing battle.
 
  • #10
Honeybees are only needed where chemical-drenched monoculture decimates the population of native pollinators. A place with one thing or another blooming throughout the season will have plenty of pollinators, assuming they aren't taken out by Guthion or some other spray. Commercial honeybees are more susceptible to diseases and parasites because they live in close quarters, are driven all over the place and get a lot of sub-acute exposure to pesticides.
 
  • #11
I tried to pollinate my first sarracenia flower, which happened to be a oreophila. I used the faq on this forum on pollinating a sarra flower. But until I saw another diagram (about a week ago long after the bloom) I could not find the stigma. I recall rubbing pollen on one or two of the stigma not knowing if that was it or not. I just kinda smeared pollen all over the flower. I sure hope I get some seed though I was planning on doing a small giveaway.

giveaway oreophila= bad.
 
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