Pollination 101

Pollination is the transfer of pollen (contains male element) from an anther of a plant to the stigma (female element) of a plant, later enabling fertilization and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects like honey bees.

The earliest evidence of pollination in among and between plants dates back approximately 300 million years ago. These ancient plants, similar to modern evergreens and grasses, released their pollen into the air and hoped that a gentle breeze would carry their pollen to another plant of the same species for pollination/fertilization and reproduction by the resulting formed seeds.  

What looks like fog in the image above is pollen being released by the evergreen tree.

As an example of how wind pollination effects our food supply think of the approx. 90 million acres of wind pollinated corn in the US.

Wind pollination is not perfect.

It took a while, but the first flowering plants pollinated by insects appeared approx. 140 million years ago. This was a huge reproductive improvement for plants. 

Think about this. At some point a plant decided that producing millions of pollen grains and simply throwing them into the air was just too much of an energy drain and inefficient for reproduction and survival.

The plant said to itself, ‘I want to have sex with that plant on the other side of the field but I can’t pull myself up by the roots, walk over and fertilize a seed. What if I make a deal with that insect over there to take some of my pollen and deliver it to that plant on the other side of the field. I’ll give the insect a little sweet nectar as payment’. So, we have 2 separate species working together, partnering to help each other. 2 Separate species, a plant and an insect. We humans are the same species, and we can't even get along.

Approx 1/3 of all the food we eat is because of this relationship between honey bees and fruit, nut, veg. production.

But in the U.S., approximately 6 million acres are dedicated to fruits, vegetables, and nuts, most of which are dependent on insect pollination. Additionally, 40 million acres are used for hay crops produced from bee-pollinated seeds like alfalfa and clover.  

There are not enough concentrated pollinators to pollinate 46 million acres of pollinator dependent crops.

So there are Beekeepers who raise honey bees. Honey bee colonies can be transported to all of the pollinator dependent crops, unlike other pollinators whose nest cannot be moved.

And now you know, the rest of the story.

Author Jerry Hayes Bee Culture