An overview on pollination of the Neotropical Poales

Abstract

Current phylogenetic hypotheses support that ancestral Poales were animal-pollinated and that subsequent shifts to wind pollination have occurred. Ten of the 16 Poales families are widely distributed in the Neotropics, however a comprehensive understanding of their pollination systems' diversity is still lacking. Here we surveyed studies on pollination biology of Neotropical species of Poales. Poaceae, Cyperaceae and Juncaceae are predominantly wind-pollinated but insect pollination also occurs. Thurniaceae and Thyphaceae fit on anemophily but empirical data are missing. Pollen flowers with poricidal anthers have evolved independently in Mayacaeae and Rapateaceae. Pollen-and nectar-flowers occur in Xyridaceae, which are mainly pollinated by bees. Eriocaulaceae flowers secrete minute quantity of nectar and are pollinated by "diverse small insects". Pollination of Bromeliaceae is carried out by a great variety of animal groups, mainly hummingbirds, and includes anemophily. The diversity in floral forms is very high within the order but more constant within the families. This trend indicates that many events of species diversification may have occurred without divergence in the pollination mode. Still, parallel shifts in pollination modes are found, including possible reversals to wind-or animal-pollination, changes in the type of pollinators (e.g. from hummingbirds to bee or bats) and the arising of ambophily.

Bromeliads going batty: pollinator partitioning among sympatric chiropterophilous Bromeliaceae

“…Post-pollination barriers in Bromeliaceae are less effective among closely related species or even between species with ‘wet stigmas’ (Matallana et al 2016), making the strategies to avoid competition and pollen misplacement to foreign stigmas very important to the overall fitness of the species. Self-compatibility is ancestral in Bromeliaceae (Wolowski and Freitas 2015) and an evolutionary reversal from self-crossing is unlikely in most angiosperms (Igic et al 2008). In this sense, it can be expected that all of the studied species are self-compatible (but see Encholirium spp.…”

Floral Color, Anthocyanin Synthesis Gene Expression and Control in Cape Erica Species

“…Pollinator shifts are therefore the result of an accumulation of changes that may gradually change the optimal pollinator type from one to another. The color shifts that we have investigated are an important part of these shifts between different biotic pollinators and from biotic- to wind-pollination (Wolowski and Freitas, 2015).…”

Melissopalynological analysis of honey produced by two species of stingless bees in Lombok Island, Indonesia

“…This result could be explained by the fact that flowers from Poaceae are nectarless so that bees cannot obtain nectar from this plant. In addition, Poaceae is an anemophilous plant whose pollination is mediated by the wind (Wolowski and Freitas 2015). Meanwhile, the predominant occurrence of Polygonum sp.…”