Supplementary honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) pollination enhances fruit growth rate and fruit yield in Paeonia ostii (family: Paeoniaceae)

Abstract

Insufficient pollination leads to low and unstable production of oil tree peony. Supplementary managed honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) in agricultural ecosystems is a common practice for addressing the problem. At this study site (N 34°38′30″ and E 112°39′43″, with an altitude of 125.5 m), we set up four pollination areas (low-density bee pollination group (LDBP), high-density bee pollination group (HDBP), blank control group (CK1) and field control group (CK2)) to examine the pollination effectiveness of different densities of honeybee supplementation on oil tree peony (Paeonia ostii). Our work demonstrated that bee-pollination increased fruit size and growth rate. On average, bee-pollinated (LDBP) plants produced 63.16% more number of seeds per plant, showed also 53.47% more weight of seeds per plant than those in CK2. Also, seeds of LDBP contained, on average, 26.15% more oil content than CK2. Kernel percent and seed oil fatty acid content, however, were unaffected (F = 1.759, p = 0.074). Compared with LDBP, weight of seeds per plant and oil content with HDBP decreased by 21.89% and 2.63%, respectively. Following the same trend, compared with LDBP, HDBP slowed fruit growth and reduced fruit size. Our results showed that insufficient pollination limits fruit set in oil tree peony, while supplementary reasonable bee density in the field for pollination is an important strategy to maximize fruit yield.

Characterization of Agronomic and Seed Oil Features for Different Cultivars of Tree Peony

“…Among all the investigated tree peony cultivars, the Y of No.46 ('Zibanbai') was the highest, reaching 337.22 g, and was followed by No.39 ('Yupantuojin'), reaching 143.56 g. There were five cultivars with a Y of more than 100 g, namely, No.62 ('Changshoule'), No.33 ('Xianchizhenghui'), No.22 ('Caiyelanju'), No.36 ('Xueyuanhongxing'), and No.38 ('Ruhuasiyu'). The Y of 'Fengdan' is similar to that of previous studies [30]. The CV of the number of seeds was 61.92%, and No.46 ('Zibanbai') had the highest number of seeds among the investigated cultivars, with more than 900, followed by No.33 ('Xianchizhenghui').…”

Comparison of Pollen-Collecting Abilities between Apis mellifera L. and Bombus terrestris L. in the Oil Tree Peony Field

“…In our preliminary study, the result showed that the seed rate and the growth rate of P. ostii were significantly improved by supplementing the A. mellifera and the B. terrestris during the flowering period in the pollination net room, which conveyed that they were both considered to be the effective pollinators of oil tree peony [37,38,44,49,50]. We measured pollen deposition per visit and compared the pollen transfer efficiency of the two species of bees in this study, and the result showed that the A. mellifera was the most effective pollinator.…”

Pollinator diversity, pollination services, and conservation in agroecosystems: A mini‐review on the successes and challenges in China

“…Chinese agroecosystems are known for their rich diversity of pollinators. Numerous studies have been conducted to explore pollinator assemblages across China targeting a variety of major crops and fruits, including apple (Wu et al, 2019), pear (Li, Sun, et al, 2022), oilseed rape (Shi et al, 2021;Shi et al, 2022;, oil tea , alfalfa (Chen et al, 2018), buckwheat (Liu et al, 2020), oil peony (He et al, 2020;Zhang, Sun, et al, 2022), and medical crops (Ren et al, 2014).…”

“…Chinese agroecosystems are known for their rich diversity of pollinators. Numerous studies have been conducted to explore pollinator assemblages across China targeting a variety of major crops and fruits, including apple (Wu et al, 2019), pear (Li, Sun, et al, 2022), oilseed rape (Shi et al, 2021; Shi et al, 2022; Zou, Bianchi, et al, 2017), oil tea (Li, Luo, et al, 2021), alfalfa (Chen et al, 2018), buckwheat (Liu et al, 2020), oil peony (He et al, 2020; Zhang, Sun, et al, 2022), and medical crops (Ren et al, 2014). As examples of the high diversity seen in crops, Wu et al (2019) reported 76 pollinator species for apples in Beijing's Changping district, while Shi et al (2021) reported 85 pollinator species for oilseed rape in Nanchang, Jiangxi.…”