The “Birds and Bees”

of Wildflowers!

Pollination Strategies of PlantsAll text and photos by Kris H. Light

©2005

Petals

Stamens

Pistils

The Parts of Flowers

StrawberryHedgehogCactus

Sepals

“Boy”

parts and “Girl”

parts –

Stamens and Pistils

Pistils are the female parts of the flower. They are connected to the ovary where the seeds form. Pollen grains attach to the sticky stigma, then they have to grow a long tube down the style to fertilize the ovules in the ovary. Stamens are the male parts of the flower. They make the pollen grains on the anthers. Stamens often wither and fall off after pollination has occurred.

Stigma

Style

Ovary

Stamens

False Aloe flowers have no petals!

Pollinators

Pollinators spread pollen from one flower to another Some pollinators include: bees, wasps, ants, beetles, butterflies, moths, bats, hummingbirds, and the wind.

Honeybee with Milkweedpollen sacs

Bumblebees have a long tongue for

sipping nectar!

Passionflower PollinationSee how the pistils and anthers droop to touch the bee’s thorax?

PistilAnther

Ovary

View of anthers and pistils from above

Petals and Nectar Guides

Petals serve as “café signs” to attract the pollinators. They are also landing pads for insects.Nectar Guides on the petals are like floral roadmaps, they show the pollinators where to find their sweet reward!These guides can be spots, stripes, or solid colors.

Synandra

Jimsonweed

Jewelweed

Flame Azalea

How is Ragweed Pollinated?

The Answer is “Blowin’ in the Wind”!

Ragweed is an all-too-common wind-pollinated flower. The male flowers use “shotgun effect”pollination, dumping millions of pollen grains into the air in an attempt to hit the small pistils on a nearby plant. Ragweed is a “monoecious” plant, it has both male and female flowers on separate parts of the plant.

Ragweed flowers

Male flowers

Female flowers

Red – Birds, HummingbirdsOrange – Butterflies, HummingbirdsYellow – Bees, Bumblebees, Butterflies,Flower flies

Green – Wind (flies, if a stinky flower)Blue – Bees, BumblebeesPurple - BumblebeesMaroon - Beetles, FliesUV – Bees and butterfliesWhite - Bees

Colors of Wildflowers and the Pollinators they attract

Maroon and Brown Flowers attract flies

and beetles!Sessile Trillium

Red Erect Trillium

Sweet Shrub (Bubby bush)

Yellowroot

Wild Ginger

Theyreallystink!!!

Carrionflower

REALLY stinks!

You’ll often smell Carrionflowers before you see them! They really do smell like a dead animal; they attract flies as their pollinators.These flowers are dioecious; staminate (male) flowers are on one plant and pistillate(female) flowers are on another.Male flowers

Female flowers

Changing Colors

Japanese Honeysuckle flowers bloom white the first day, but turn yellow the next day indicating that they have been pollinated.

Pistil and Anther Maturity

Pistils and anthers mature at different rates in some flowers to prevent self-pollination

Spring Beauty

Pistil Anthers

Composite Flowers

Composite flowers are composed of several to hundreds of small, individual florets. Each floret is a perfect flower, containing the male and female parts and can make a single seed. Daisies, Dandelions, Thistles and Sunflowers are composite flowers. Bees, butterflies, and beetles like these flowers because they offer more “bang for the buck”!

Purple-headedSneezeweed

Bearpaw with bumblebee

Bowl-shaped Flowers

Bowl-shapedflowers are oftenpollinated by beesand “intellectually-challenged” insects such as beetles.

Virginia Spring Beauty

Queen Anne’s Lace

Crocus

Dogwood Flowers

The actual flowers are the small yellow ones in the center. The white “petals”are bracts.

Tube-shaped Flowers

Tube-shaped flowers attract pollinators with long mouthparts such as butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and bees. Nectar is produced deep in the flower forcing the pollinator to touch the pollen-bearing stamens and the pistils.

Ivy-leafed Morning Glory

Blazing Star with Skipper

Little Brown Jugs

These strange, fleshy brown flowers grow right on the ground. They are pollinated by a type of fungus gnat.

Gullet flowers

Gullet flowers are visited by large-bodied insects like bumblebees.Pink Turtlehead

Sharp-wingedMonkeyflower

Ground Ivy

Pea Family Flowers

Pea flowers have petals called the standard, keel, and 2 wings. The pistil and stamens are enclosed in the keel.It takes a fairly intelligent pollinator, such as a bee, to enter the flower and pollinate it.

Clammy Locust

Standard

Wings

Keel

Redbud

Clover

White Clover is also a member of the Pea Family. When each individual white flower is pollinated, it turns brownish-pink and falls down, the flower’s way of “telling” the bees it has been pollinated.

Orchids

Some orchids have flowers that work as a maze for a bee to go through to pick up pollen.

Pink Lady’s Slipper

Separation of the Sexes! - Monoecious

Flowers

Pachysandra is a plant that has pistillateflowers and staminate flowers on the same stalk.

Pistillateflower

Staminateflowers

Maple Tree flowers

Female (these will turn into the “helicopters”)

Male (these fall off the tree and make a mess on the ground)

Maybe this Jack-in-the-Pulpit is actually a “Jill”!

Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants are “dioecious”, the flowers are either male or female. These plants can change gender from year to year depending on their health. It takes more energy to produce fruits and seeds and less energy to just produce pollen. Female plants usually have 2 leaves, male plants usually have 1 leaf.

This IS a “Jack”!

Note the staminate flowers at the base of the “Jack” (spadix). These tiny flowers produce pollen.The “hood” is called the spathe; “Jack” is a spadix.

Staminate flowers inthe spadix

This is a “JILL!”

The pistillateflowers are at the base of the spadix. These will become red berries in the fall if they are pollinated.

Pistillateflowers on thespadix

Self-pollinating flowers

Some flowers are able to pollinate themselves! Violets have closed, often hidden, flowers called “cleistogamous”flowers that self-pollinate.Dandelions also self-pollinate. Dandelion

Violet

Floral Oddities

Saprophytes are plants that contain no chlorophyll, the green pigment responsible for photosynthesis. These wildflowers, called Indian Pipes, break down decaying leaves for nutrients.

Parasites

Dodder is a parasitic plant that also contains no chlorophyll. The small teeth, called “haustoria”sink into the host plant to obtain nutrients.

Bear’s “Ex-Lax”!

This parasitic early-bloomer, called Squawroot, is sought out by black bears to eat when they emerge from hibernation. They use it as a type of laxative!

One-Flowered Cancer Root

One-flowered Cancer Root is parasitic on the roots of other plants. They have no leaves.

End of Presentation

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