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Bees and flowering plants have a long relationship, developing together over the millennia in away that benefited both the plants and the insects and enabling both to survive better than they would have done independently. Cross pollination, which is the transfer of pollen (or the male genetic material) from one plant to the female part of another, allows genetic diversity which is highly advantageous to the plant in its eternal struggle for survival. Plants are unable to carry out cross-pollination themselves and so need the help of an outside agent. This is the role of pollinating insects.
To engage the help of a pollinating insect, plants must ensure that the pollinators are rewarded so they will come again and also visit other flowers of the same kind. The plants 'pay' for their pollination service by offering the visiting insects sweet nectar, which is an energy rich food source. As it searches the flower for the nectar the hairy body of the insect is brushed with pollen from the stamens of the plant, and this pollen is carried to next plant visited. The pollen gets brushed off the insect's body onto the female parts of the plant forming a new seed to start the cycle of the plant's life all over again while the pollinator carries the nectar back to its nest to feed itself and its young.
Honey bees and other social bees that store a surplus of honey transform the nectar into honey by adding enzymes, changing the sugars into a simpler form, reducing the water content and storing the crop so that it will keep and does not have to be consumed immediately. For honey bees this transformation and storage of nectar allows them to survive across a wide range of habitats and climatic conditions making the honey bee one of the earth's most adaptable species.
People get a good deal out of this elegant natural system too. Pollination is the mechanism that allows us to harvest crops and seeds throughout the world. In many places in the world this service provided by the bees is so valuable to farmers that they pay beekeepers to bring their bees as a commercial pollination proposition. There is a surplus of honey that we are able to harvest. Other wildlife is sustained, maintaining the world's biodiversity while we get to enjoy the beauty of the flowers deriving from the plants adaptations of colour, shape, scent and petals that it uses to attract pollinators.
List of Articles available on this topic (99):
Title | Author |
A Guide to Managing Bees for Crop Pollination | Scott-Dupree, C,, Gates, J., Hergert, G., Nelson, J.D., Termer, B. & Winston, M. |
A pollen load\'s secret - part I | Hubbe, W. |
Activity and abundance of pollinators of plum at Ludhiana (Punjab) | Mann, G.S.; Singh, G. |
Adventures in Beekeeping - Ratanakiri, Cambodia | Peterson, S. |
Assessing the role of honey bees in a field of Asiatic cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.) | Tanda, A.S. |
Beekeeping and Plantation Agriculture: Alternative livlihoods for farmers | Abila, N. |
Beekeeping development using value chain approach in Fogera district | Gebey, T.; Berhe, K.; Hoekstra D. |
Beekeeping Handbook for the Gambia: Pollination by Bees and Beekeeping with Top Bar Hives | Hertz, O. |
Bees and CropPollenation - Crisis, Crosssroads, Conservation. | Stubbs, C & Drummond, F. |
Behaviour of insects foraging on pigeon pea in India | Williams, I.H. |
Burkina Faso | Nombre, I.; Sawadogo, M.; Boussim, J. & Guinko, S. |
Common Names of plants in Bangladesh and West Bengal | |
Common Plants of Bangladesh their use to Bees | Day, R. |
Coppice | Mottershead,C |
Crop Pollination by Bees | Delaplane, K.S., & Mayer, D.F. |
Crucial value of pollinators | Banks,M. |
Decoding the language of the bee | Frish, K.V. |
Economic benefit of crop pollination by bees: a case of Kakamega small-holder farming in Western Kenya | Kasina, J.M., Mburu, J., Kraemer, M. and Holm-Mueller, K. |
Economic implications of Africanised bees | Balogh, S. |
Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline | Gallai, N., Salles, J., Settele, J. and Vaissiere, B.E. |
Effect of insect pollination on fruit bearing mandarin and physical and chemical properties of the fruit | Manzoor-ul-Haq; Rafie-ul-Din, M.; Ghaffar, A. |
Eucalyptus erythriocoris; a source of nectar and pollen for bees in Israel. | Lupo A.; Eisikowitch, D. |
Experiments in the Use of Honeybees for the Pollination of Lotus Seed Crops | Ke X, Zhang W, Zhang H, Xu D, Jiang Z |
Flora Apicola: Lavalle - La Asuncion, Mendoza - Argentina | Wingenroth, M. |
Flowering Trees | Randhawa, M.S. |
Food Legumes: Distribution, Adaptability and Biology of Yield | Sinha, S.K. |
Frequency of insect visitors for pollen foraging on sunflower in relation to daily temperature and humidity | Vaish, O.P.; Agrawal, S.C. & Joshi, M.J. |
Fruit Crops Pollination | Jindal, K.K., & Verma, L.R. |
Garden Plants Valuable to Bees | International Bee Research Association |
Globa honey bee disorders and other threats to insect pollinators | Kluser, S.; Neumann, P.; Chauzat, M; Pettis, J. |
Global honey bee colony disorders and other threats to insect pollinators | UNEP |
Global honey bee decline and its effects on agricultural production | Hayes, J. |
Guide to some of East Africa\'s Flowering Trees and Shrubs | SHELL |
Guide to some of East Africa\'s Upland Flowers | SHELL |
Guidelines for the economic valuation of pollination services at a national scale | Nicola Gallai, Bernard E. Vaissière |
Honeybee Pollination of Important Entomophilous Crops | Ahmad, R. |
How to manage the blue orchard bee as an orchard pollinator | Bosch, J. & Kemp, W. |
IBRA Appendix Pollens Identified in Honey Samples from Bangladesh | IBRA |
Improved pollination of insect pollinated crops in Bhutan | |
Insect Pollination In Greenhouses | de Ruijter, A & Sommeijer, M (eds) |
Insect Pollination of Crops | Free, J.B. |
Insect Pollination of Cultivated Crop Plants: Agriculture Handbook No. 496 | McGregor, S.E. |
Insect Pollinators of Crops | Atwal. A.S. |
Insrumental Insemination of Honeybee queens | Cobey, S. |
Integrated Crop and Food Production in Afghanistan: an account of the achievements of the AFG/94/002 programme 1995-1997 and opportunities for 1997-1999 | FAO |
Intimate relationships between plants and pollinators | Peebles, S. |
Low-cost homes for wild pollinators | Bogatyrev, N. |
Low-cost homes for wild pollinators | Bogatyrev, N |
Managed Crop Pollination: The Missing Dimension of Mountain Agricultural Productivity | Partap, U. & Partap, T. |
Management of Philippine Bees | Cervancia C.R: Fajardo A.C; Manila-Fajardo A.C; Lucero R.M. |
Mimicry and deception in pollination | Dafni, A |
Planting for Bees in Developing Countries | IBRA |
Plants and Beekeeping | Howes, F N |
Plants and Beekeeping: an account of those plants, wild and cultivated, of value to the hive bee, and for honey production in the British Isles | Howes, F.N. |
Plants and Honey Bees: their relationships | Aston, D. & Bucknall, S. |
Plants and honeybees: An introduction to their relationships | Aston, D. and Bucknall, S. |
Pocket Pollen Colour Guide: A Handy Guide to Aid in the Identification of Pollen Loads of the Honey Bee | Bees for Development |
Pollen and Allergy | Bruce Knox, R |
Pollen: the hidden sexuality of flowers | Kesseler, R. & Harley, M. |
Pollinating bees: the conservation link between agriculture and nature | Kevan,P & Imperatriz-F,V L |
Pollinating pet | Tonkin, J. |
Pollination Biology - Basic and Applied Principles | Sihag, R C (ed) |
Pollination Biology - Environmental Factors and Pollination | Sihag, R C (ed) |
Pollination Biology - Pollination, Plant Reproduction and Crop Seed Production | Sihag, R C |
Pollination Directory for World Crops | Crane, E. & Walker, P. |
Pollination in the tropics | Free, J.B. |
Pollination Management Of Mountain Crops through Beekeeping | Partap, U |
Pollination Management of Mountain Crops through Beekeeping: Trainers\' Resource Book | Partap, U. |
Pollination of apples in China | Partap, U. and Partap, T. |
Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics | Roubik, D.W. |
Pollination of Entomophilous Agricultural Crops By Bees | Kozin, R.B. |
Pollination of Parkia biglobosa in The Gambia - with focus on honeybees as pollinators | Lassen, K. M. |
Pollination with mason bees | Dogterom,M |
Pollinator Conservation Handbook | Xerces Society |
Pollinator Protection: A Bee and Pesticide Handbook | Johansen, C.A. & Mayer, D.F. |
Pollinators in a Changing Landscape | Alton, S. |
Practical Pollination Biology | Dafni, A., Kevan, P. G. & Husband, B. C. |
Publications relating to African Honey Bees and Beekeeping reported in Apicultural Abstracts 1990 (editions 1 - 4) and 1991 (editions 1 - 3) | |
Restoration of Apis cerana japonica on the Goto Islands | Hishahi, F. |
Risk governance of pollination services | International Risk Governance Council |
Rural Processing and Preserving Techniques for Fruits and Vegetables | FAO |
Selected Indicators of Food and Agriculture Development in Asia-Pacific Region, 1976-86 | FAO |
Some Trees, Shrubs and Climbers of Bijilo Forest Park | Bijilo Forest Park |
Soundbites Its A Fair Crop! | Traidcraft |
State of the World\'s Forests | Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations |
Studies on Utilizing Honeybees for Increasing the Fruit Yield and Developing Camellia meiocarpa as a Source of Honey | Chao S. W., Cheng Q. Z., Liu Z. Z., Zhou S. L. |
Successful pollination of apples | Partap, U. |
Technical Manual on Small-Scale Processing of Fruits and Vegetables | Paltrinieri, G., Figuerola, F. & Rojas, L. |
The Asian Hive Bee, Apis cerana, as a Pollinator in Vegetable Seed Production | Verma, L.R. & Partap, U. |
The beekeeping programme in Burma | Morse, R.A. |
The Human Pollinators of Fruit Crops in Maoxian County, Sichuan, China | Partap, U. & Tang Ya |
The importance of bee-pollination in four genotypes of Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) | Musallam, I. W., Haddad, N.J., Tawaha, R.M. and Migdadi, O.S. |
The Pollen Loads of the Honey Bee | Hodges, D |
The study of pollen | Sawyer, R. |
Trees Bees Use - Chromolaena odorata | Adesina, G.O. & Babarinde, S.A. |
Valuing insect pollination services with cost of replacement | Allsop, M.H. de Lange, W.J. and Veldtman, R. |
Warning signals - from the Apple Valleys of the Hindu Kush-himalayas - productivity concerns and pollination problems - abridged edition | Partap, U. & Partap, T. |
Warning signals from the Apple Valleys of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: Productivity Concerns and Pollination Problems | Partap,U & Partap T |
What commercial pollination means for the environment | Bees for Development |