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FEATURES OF WIND AND INSECT-POLLINATED FLOWERS
Wind-pollinated flowers are regarded as Anemophilous Examples are maize, rice, millet, grasses and sugarcane.
They have the following features:
- The flowers are dull in colour. The perianth is usually tiny, pale green and inconspicuous.
- Flowers are usually small in size and inconspicuous but are often borne in large inflorescences e.g. coconut and cereals.
- They have neither nectar nor scent.
- They are not bilaterally symmetrical but are radially symmetrical.
- The stamens have pendulous and long filaments with loosely attached or versatile on others, which can swing easily in the wind. Each explosive anther contains smooth pollen grains.
- The stigma is usually large branched and leathery. This feature provides a large surface area on which pollen grains may be caught.
Australian Honey Possum
The Australian honey possum is one of the only mammal species, other than bats, known to eat nectar and pollen as the mainstay of its diet.
Insect pollinated flowers are also known as Entomophilous They exhibit certain characteristics features as follows:
- Petals parts like the tracts and sepals may also be coloured e.g. Bougainvillea.
- Flowers are usually large and conspicuous. They also consist of small florets which are grouped into a heed as in the composites of sunflower or large and conspicuous.
- Many flowers have sweet scent or scents. Flowers usually pollinated by nocturnal insects are strongly scented to attract.
- Insect pollinated flowers like hibiscus and flamboyant have a sweet and sugary juice known as Nectar. Nectar is a liquid food for many insect pollinators. Like Bees and butterfly.
- Each has a peculiar shape or a complex arrangement of flora pants. This feature creates a mechanism specially suited for their associated insect pollinator. E.g. crotalaric and salvic
- The stamens are conspicuous and occur in definite numbers. The anthal are small, compact, and firmly attached to the filament. Pollen grains produced are few in number, heavy; rough edged and spiky or sticky. This feature reduces wastage and ensures attachment to a visiting insect pollinator.
EVALUATION
- State 3 features of wind pollinated flowers.
- List all the features that may attract insects to a particular flower.
Wind Pollination
Wind-pollinated plants such as corn typically produce inconspicuous flowers, rather than the brightly colored flowers designed to attract insects. In corn, the male and female parts of the flower are found on different parts of the plant. Shown here are the light green stamens (also called tassles), the pollen-bearing, structures located at the top of the plant. The female structures, which contain very long styles called silks, are growing laterally from the stalk below the stamens.
SUB-TOPIC 4: AGENTS OF POLLINATION
Pollination in most flowering plant depends on external pollinators. These include:
- Wind
- Water
- Insects
- Other animals such as birds, squirrels, rats and snails.
Wind and insects are the commonest pollinators. Insects visit flowers for nectar and pollen on which they feed. Features like colour and scent serve to attract and guide insects to their food source. In the process of reaching their food source, insects bring about pollination. Common insect pollinators are bees, wasps, beetles, butterflies, moths and ants.
Insect pollinators, by their high mobility, can pollinate individual flowers of a species that are widely spaced apart.
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