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Small carpenter bees of the genus Ceratina are widespread, but little-studied as pollinators despite their presence in various pollinator assemblages. This study documents the importance of Ceratina ridleyi as a pollinator of the small-flowered Malaysian ginger Globba leucantha var. bicolor. Species of Zingiberaceae are defined by peculiar floral morphologies (e.g staminodes and a single functional anther) but are rarely studied for their insect pollinators. Surprisingly, C. ridleyi was revealed as the single pollinator of Globba leucantha’s showy flowers even though the presence of Apis sp., Trigona sp., and Amegilla sp. were observed in the study site. This small carpenter bee collects both pollen and nectar from the ginger flower. Pollen grains were observed attached to its scopal hairs and hairs on the ventral thorax and ventral abdomen. The bee contacts the flower’s sole stigma only during foraging for pollen, where the stigma contacts pollen accumulated on hairs of the bee’s ventral thorax and ventral abdomen. This study represents the first pollination report of a Ceratina pollinating a species of Zingiberaceae, and only the second report of any Ceratina pollinating a flower with complex morphology.

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In vitro propagation has been significant in producing a large number of genetically stable regenerated plants. Regenerated Ficus carica var. Black Jack plantlets were established using woody plant medium (WPM) supplemented with 20 µM 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 8 µM Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) under different light treatments such as normal fluorescent white light (60 µmol.m− 2.s− 1), and four different LED spectra, white (400– 700nm), blue (440nm), red (660nm) and blue + red (440nm + 660nm). Genetic stability analysis was performed on the in vitro and ex vitro plants of Ficus carica var. Black Jack. Ten (10) primers of each ISSR and DAMD molecular marker were used to assess the genetic stability of the eight (8) samples of Ficus carica var. Black Jack, acquired over two years. The findings of this study revealed that inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) and directed amplification of minisatellite DNA (DAMD) markers (DNA primers) are efficient in determining the polymorphism and monomorphism percentage among the in vitro and ex vitro samples of Ficus carica var. Black Jack. ISSR markers showed 97.87% of monomorphism whereas DAMD markers showed 100% monomorphism. Polymorphism of 2.13% was observed for the UBC840 ISSR – DNA primer which was negated under the genetic similarity index analysis for the eight samples. It is recommended that genetic stability analysis should be performed for long-term maintenance of micropropagated plants.