Nectar properties and the role of sunbirds as pollinators of the golden‐flowered tea (<i>Camellia petelotii</i>)

Sun, Shi‐Guo; Huang, Zhihuan J.; Chen, Zhibao; Huang, Shuang‐Quan

doi:10.3732/ajb.1600428

Cited by 30 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…; Fang, Chen, & Huang, , Eriobotrya Lindl. ; Sun, Huang, Chen, & Huang, , Camellia L.), the present study is the first to fully document specialized pollination by honeybees in fall–winter flowering plants, and thereby it explicitly indicates that the bee pollination niche could be available to temperate plant species even during mid‐winter. Japanese C. dayanum plants have the following floral morphological traits that appear to reflect specialized pollination by A. cerana japonica : (a) the dimensions of the labellum chamber, formed by the column and labellum, correspond to the body size of the worker honeybee; (b) the strongly recurved apex of the labellum enables the precise deposition of pollinaria on the honeybee's scutellum; and (c) the oblong viscidium is appropriate for adhering to the scutellar surface.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Specialized pollination by honeybees inCymbidium dayanum, a fall–winter flowering orchid

Matsuda

Sugiura

2019

Plant Species Biology

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Floral biology and pollination mechanisms of Cymbidium dayanum, an endangered epiphytic orchid, were investigated in south Kyushu, Japan. The flowering period spanned approximately 4 months from fall to winter, with the inflorescences often blooming asynchronously on each plant and individual flowers commonly lasting for a month. The nectarless flowers are self‐compatible but cannot autonomously self‐pollinate; the orchid needs to attract pollinators by deceit for capsule production. The field observations showed that the flowers were pollinated exclusively by the Japanese honeybee Apis cerana japonica, despite its long flowering period. The worker bees pollinated flowers and/or received the pollinarium on the thorax, while escaping from the labellum chamber. The natural fruit‐set ratios at the population level, an estimate of pollination success, varied interannually but were generally low, as the result of infrequent flower visits by honeybee workers owing to the cold winter climate and the lack of a nectar reward. Because most flowers that were artificially pollinated in the winter successfully developed into capsules, the coldness was not considered a direct cause of the low fruit‐set ratios. Our results explicitly indicate that the bee pollination niche could be available to temperate plant species even during mid‐winter. We inferred advantages for the winter flowering of C. dayanum.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Specialized pollination by honeybees inCymbidium dayanum, a fall–winter flowering orchid

Matsuda

Sugiura

2019

Plant Species Biology

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“…; Sun et al . ). We contribute to these previous findings by showing that besides floral traits per se , which in our study correlate with the relative importance of hummingbirds versus insects, differences in PE are also associated with pollinator availability across elevational/environmental gradients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Relative effectiveness of insects versus hummingbirds as pollinators of Rubiaceae plants across elevation in Dominica, Caribbean

et al. 2019

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Most angiosperms rely on animal pollination for reproduction, but the dependence on specific pollinator groups varies greatly between species and localities. Notably, such dependence may be influenced by both floral traits and environmental conditions. Despite its importance, their joint contribution has rarely been studied at the assemblage level.• At two elevations on the Caribbean island of Dominica, we measured the floral traits and the relative contributions of insects versus hummingbirds as pollinators of plants in the Rubiaceae family. Pollinator importance was measured as visitation rate (VR) and single visit pollen deposition (SVD), which were combined to assess overall pollinator effectiveness (PE).• In the wet and cool Dominican highland, we found that hummingbirds were relatively more frequent and effective pollinators than insects, whereas insects and hummingbirds were equally frequent and effective pollinators at the warmer and less rainy midelevation. Furthermore, floral traits correlated independently of environment with the relative importance of pollinators, hummingbirds being more important in plant species having flowers with long and wide corollas producing higher volumes of dilute nectar.• Our findings show that both environmental conditions and floral traits influence whether insects or hummingbirds are the most important pollinators of plants in the Rubiaceae family, highlighting the complexity of plant-pollinator systems.

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“…Rhythms of nectar secretion have been observed to match activity patterns of the most effective pollinators (Herrera, ; Sun et al, ). In F. kwangsiensis , the rate of nectar secretion increased in the early morning (04:00–06:00 h) and gradually decreased thereafter, and the sugar concentration was consistently low (<10%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the ex situ conservation of this endangered plant relies on maintenance of the interactions between plants and sunbirds. A recent study on winter‐flowering Camellia species indicated that sunbirds, rather than honeybees, were potentially effective pollinators (Sun et al, ). The low seed production in the tea‐oil tree, Camellia oleifera Abel, an important oil crop plant, could be attributed to a loss of effective pollinators in that most transplantation was to the north of its native area (South China), outside the sunbird foraging range.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sunbirds serve as major pollinators for various populations of Firmiana kwangsiensis, a tree endemic to South China

Huang

Wei

Huang

et al. 2018

J of Sytematics Evolution

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Loss of local, effective pollinators may potentially limit plant reproductive success but the plantpollinator interactions could be rescued if the plant does not reject other pollen vectors. Firmiana kwangsiensis H.H. Hsue (Malvaceae) is an endangered tree endemic to limestone areas in South China. Although its preservation status is listed as "critically endangered", its reproductive ecology is little known. We compared floral visitors in three wild populations and one transplanted population. Such a comparison allows us to see whether the pollinator assemblage varies geographically and to examine the plasticity of plant-pollinator interactions, informing sustainable ex situ conservation. Our pollination experiments indicated that fruit/seed set in F. kwangsiensis largely depended on pollinator visits, and was greatly reduced under hand self-pollination or exclusion of bird visits. Floral visitors included sunbirds, butterflies, and bees (honeybee and wasp) but their visitation frequency varied in the four populations. The sunbird Nectarinia jugularis was the major pollinator in the three wild populations, but was replaced by the other sunbird Aethopyga christinae in the ex situ population. This tree is showy, with orange-red flowers blooming before the leaves emerge. The calyx tube accumulates a large volume of dilute nectar (sugar concentration was 9.5%) in the morning, rewarding sunbird pollinators. Our investigations indicated that sunbirds rather than insects served as a functional group of pollinators for this endangered species. Successful ex situ conservation of this type of plant needs to consider the availability of potential pollinators.

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Nectar properties and the role of sunbirds as pollinators of the golden‐flowered tea (Camellia petelotii)

Cited by 30 publications

References 46 publications

Specialized pollination by honeybees inCymbidium dayanum, a fall–winter flowering orchid

Specialized pollination by honeybees inCymbidium dayanum, a fall–winter flowering orchid

Relative effectiveness of insects versus hummingbirds as pollinators of Rubiaceae plants across elevation in Dominica, Caribbean

Sunbirds serve as major pollinators for various populations of Firmiana kwangsiensis, a tree endemic to South China

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