Entomophilous pollination

[Greengage]

Entomophilous pollination now that was a new one on me, I saw a very old poster in a schoolroom today of a picture of a willowherb describing Entomophilous pollination by insects. It probably dates from the early 1900.
Anyway i checked out Entomophilous and found the word Entomophily which describes pollen spores being distributed by insects, these pollen spores are larger than pollen from plants that are wind pollinated and are said to be more nutritious for bees both honey and Bumble.
you learn something every day bet this is not on the beekeeping exam.

[gavin]

Should be! The wind thing is anaemophilous. Or anemophilous, especially if you are American. The additional protein in insect-pollinated pollen might be to help make the pollen heavy and sticky but likely is also down to the rewards the plant gives the pollinator to make it come back next time and to thrive sufficiently to allow it to do so. Anaemophilous pollen is harder for the insect to collect as it tends to depart in a puff of ... pollen ... due to a lack of stickiness and a tendency to pick up an electrostatic charge to help it do so. So you may see bees collecting pollen from hazel catkins and grass spikes but these are either desperate measures or stupid bees!

Of course, willow catkins have a more complex origin. The original true flowering plant was likely entomophilous, although this is controversial. A bit like Magnolias. Then catkin-bearing flowering trees developed a long time later, enjoying the benefits of casting their pollen to the wind. They tend to do this early in the season, before foliage seriously gets in the way. Willows for some reason changed tack again. Their catkins changed from being dangly and wobbly to upright and erect, and they also (re-)started offering nectar to passing insects.

Henceforth willow were able to thrive in small patches or individual trees (serviced by far-flying bees) whereas your wind-pollinated types tend to need to be (in their natural state) in big groups in the forests of temperate regions.

Zoophily, there's another word. Insects, bats, hummingbirds, even slugs all together.

[Calluna4u]

So you may see bees collecting pollen from hazel catkins and grass spikes but these are either desperate measures or stupid bees!
.

In northern Italy, in Asti where there are thousands of hectares of hazelnut trees, it is regarded as a highly nutritious pollen and the start of the cathkins heralds a period of explosive colony development. I must remind myself to tell Marco his bees are stupid! lol

btw...the little red female flowers get quite sticky and they gather nectar from them.

Ditto willows in parts of France where an early season willow flow sometimes happens from the female trees. (Here too, but only occasionally, and only enough to act as a brood stimulus along with the abundant pollen.)

[gavin]

Jings! I think I learn something from each of your posts but I wasn't expecting to do so in this thread. Always thought hazel pollen was poor fare and never imagined that the female flowers would offer nectar.

A lot of plants hedge their bets and can switch between modes of pollination. Significant amounts of willow pollen can get into the air in the right conditions. Same for oilseed rape - if plants are well-served with moisture then the pollen is sticky and nectar is offered. In dry years a lot of pollen can go airborne and little nectar is offered.

I have one site (the one with the wheel-trapping brick-lined hole) beside a marsh-fringed loch with extensive areas of willow. Was hoping (with unreasonable optimism, I know) for some willow honey next spring from the strongest hives just back from the heather. If not that then I'll take the strong spring build-up followed by a decent sycamore harvest ;).

[Honeybunch]

You will find this in the syllabus Intermediate Module 2 objective 2.21 It is dealt with on pages 156 and 157 of the Beekeeping Study Notes 2nd edition. In the Module 2 paper 24th March 2012 question 5 is "What is an entomophilous plant or flower"