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- Title
Botany: Specialized bird perch aids cross-pollination.
- Authors
Anderson, Bruce; Cole, William W.; Barrett, Spencer C. H.
- Abstract
Birds may hover over or perch on flowers when feeding on nectar, and this assists cross-pollination if they then visit other plants. Here we investigate the curious sterile inflorescence axis of the South African Cape endemic‘rat's tail’plant (Babiana ringens, Iridaceae), whose function-unlike in other bird-pollinated plants-is exclusively to provide a perch for foraging birds. We find that this structure promotes the plant's mating success by causing the malachite sunbird (Nectarinia famosa), its main pollinator, to adopt a position ideal for the cross-pollination of its unusual ground-level flowers.
- Subjects
PLANT self-incompatibility; INFLORESCENCES; FLORAL products; POLLINATION; POLLEN; STERILITY in plants
- Publication
Nature, 2005, Vol 435, Issue 7038, p41
- ISSN
0028-0836
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/435041a