ArticleScientific reports2019
Pollen grain morphology is not exclusively responsible for pollen collectability in bumble bees.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Untangling the reproductive puzzle: how floral traits, pollinator behavior, and breeding strategy shape reproductive success in the Himalayan medicinal herbFrontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Flower-bee versus pollen-bee metanetworks in fragmented landscapes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Pollen chemical and mechanical defences restrict host-plant use by bees.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Heterospecific pollen avoidance strategy prevails in the generalized plant-pollinator network on Yongxing Island.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Plant Species as Potential Forage for Honey Bees in the Al-Baha Mountain Region in Southwestern Saudi Arabia.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Row crop fields provide mid-summer forage for honey bees.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- The pollen virome of wild plants and its association with variation in floral traits and land use.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Article
- Causes and consequences of variation in heterospecific pollen receipt in Oenothera fruticosa.American journal of botany · 2021Article
- Do flowers removed of either nectar or pollen attract fewer bumblebee pollinators? An experimental test inAoB PLANTS · 2021Article
- Article
- Pollen on stigmas as proxies of pollinator competition and facilitation: complexities, caveats and future directions.Annals of botany · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bee-pollinated plants face a dilemma in that bees both passively transport pollen grains among conspecific flowers and actively collect pollen to feed their larvae. Therefore, mechanisms that reduce pollen collection by bees have evolved in melittophilous plants. Malvaceae pollen is uncollectable for corbiculate bees which has previously been ascribed to pollen size, spines, and pollenkitt. We analysed the influence of pollen grain properties (diameter, spine length, spine density) on the collectability of echinate (spiny) pollen by bumble bees (Bombus terrestris). Workers individually foraging on one of eight plant species from six families performed significantly less pollen foraging on plants which have large, echinate pollen grains. Nevertheless, neither pollen grain size, spine length, nor spine density prove to be an absolute disqualifier for collectability. While pollen foragers did not shift to nectar collection but seized visiting flowers with uncollectable pollen, nectar foragers performed regular foraging bouts on these plants. Pollen that is uncollectable for corbiculate bees limits pollen depletion by generalist bumble bees and probably also honey bees while maintaining them as pollinators, which is an effective solution to the pollen dilemma. As previous assumptions about the impact of pollen morphology on its collectability are disproved, potentially determining factors are discussed.
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