Pollinating Agents (video for Children)

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In this post we will learn about the agents or actors of pollination which are diverse and varied. If insects, especially bees, are the main actors in this process, there are other forms of pollination, such as wind or water. Let's discover the protagonists.

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The different protagonists of pollination and associated processes are:

• animals: the most numerous are represented by insects, then birds come, then bats and, to a lesser extent, other mammals (rodents with little memory) and herbivores by dissemination);
• wind (anemogamy or anemophilia);
• water (hydrochloric);
• self-fertilization (autogamy and alogamia).

Insect pollination ( entomogamy).

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This method of plant fertilization is the most widespread, the most diverse and the most effective. She has created special relationships of mutualism between plants and insects. This "contract" can take as many aspects as the relationships are diverse.

In fact, flowering plants provide shelter and cover for insects that, in turn, ensure their pollination and dissemination. The leaves and stems, as well as their transformation (wax) can serve as shelters, while the flowers produce pollen and nectar. Other parts of the plants offer sugary substances such as molasses, from aphid droppings.

The survival or evolution of the world's plant species and the production of cultivated species depend directly on insect pollination.

These pollinators are mainly social or solitary bees.

Bees and cross pollination

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Cross pollination is only effective when, when the insect flies from flower to flower to allow genetic mixing. This beneficial evolution for the hymenopter and for the plant is called "mutualism." It is thanks to the latter, to this agreement between bee and flower.

Bees are so specialized in collecting pollen that they literally draw resources from the flowers they feed. They take everything they can to feed the young, to the detriment of the plants. To survive, they have been forced to adopt defense strategies.

Pollination by birds (Ornithophilia)

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This pollination is the adaptation of plants to bird pollination. It mainly refers to hummingbirds, souimangas and meliphages. The flowers most often have narrow and long corollas, in which birds come to sink their beaks. It is at this point that pollen is deposited in the feathers of the bird's head, which will transport it in another pistil. The flowers generally have colors in red tones, because it is the tone that the birds perceive better, while in the insects it is usually yellow.

Bat Pollination (Cheiropterophilia)

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While most of the approximately one thousand species of bats are insectivorous, some, including megachiroptera, are frugivorous, while others eat flowers or extract nectar. The tongue of the bat, elongated, allows to reach the nectar, which contributes to the cross-pollination of plants.

The dissemination of seeds by animals (Zoochoria)

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Zoocoria means that the form of dispersal of plant seeds is by animals. This process allows to cross great distances to the seeds, to favor the expansion of the species and the diversification of the genetic inheritance of the plants.

Wind Pollination (Anemogamy)

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As plants cannot move, the method of wind dispersion, called anemogamy, is what gymnosperms (conifers, grasses, hazelnuts, birches ...) originally developed for pollination.

Plants produce amounts of fine and light pollen that the wind easily transports. This pollination mode is very random because the male elements can fall on the female flowers, or to the side ...

Water Pollination (Hidrocoria)

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This mode is seed dispersal that takes place through water. Runoff, rain or sea currents: water pollination can assume different aspects.

This type of pollination can be carried out by runoff when the capsules are driven by rivets or during floods (river or river overflows), falling directly into dormant or stagnant waters, splashing rain or sea currents.

Video to explain to children, Pollinating Agents; in an easier way.

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