Asteraceae Paradox: Chemical and Mechanical Protection of Taraxacum Pollen.

ABSTRACT: Excessive pollen harvesting by bees can compromise the reproductive success of plants. Plants have therefore evolved different morphological structures and floral cues to narrow the spectrum of pollen feeding visitors. Among "filtering" mechanisms, the chemical and mechanical protection of pollen might shape bee-flower interactions and restrict pollen exploitation to a specific suite of visitors such as observed in Asteraceae. Asteraceae pollen is indeed only occasionally exploited by generalist bee species but plentifully foraged by specialist ones (i.e., Asteraceae paradox). During our bioassays, we observed that micro-colonies of generalist bumblebee (Bombus terrestris L.) feeding on Taraxacum pollen (Asteraceae) reduced their pollen collection and offspring production. Be

SUBMITTER: Vanderplanck M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7290674 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature