Flowers, Nectar and Insect Visits: Evaluating British Plant Species for Pollinator-friendly Gardens

Comba, Livio

doi:10.1006/anbo.1998.0835

Cited by 112 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Considering that many common garden flowers are exotic and/or horticultural cultivars that may provide relatively little pollen and/or nectar (Comba et al 1999), this result has similar observation. Also, in support of this, several flower cultivars that are common in neighborhood blocks but not green spaces (e.g.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 66%

Assessment of Flower Visiting Insects Diversity as Pollinators in Two Parks, Kolkata, India

Chowdhury¹,

Sarkar²,

Nandy

et al. 2014

ILNS

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Insects are depends upon autotrophs and they attract by the flowers colour and shape as pollinator. This is a mutual relationship between flowers and insects. The present study aims to determine flower visiting insect diversity as pollinators in two parks as biomonitoring of automobile air pollution exposure, landscape changes and/or human interactions. The study areas were selected as per heavily-populated neighborhoods, nearby office buildings, nearby roads and continuous vehicular movements, human interactions as visitors, where fences and high levels of human disturbance are common. The study was carried out at 2 sampling stations viz (i) Elliot park and (ii) Agri-Horticulture Society. The flower species were selected viz. Helianthus annuus, Petunia sp. and Buganvilia spectabilis planting above mentioned areas because these species are more common among other species. In each flower, diversity of visiting insects were studied by qualitative and quantitative assessment. Indices were Species richness, Index of Dominance, Relative abundance, ShannonWiener Diversity Index and Evenness Index for insects for all selected sites were calculated using the statistical formulae. The present results clearly indicate that the flower visiting insects are very less in numbers on three flowering species and index values were decreased. This study is a preliminary assessment of flower visiting insects diversity but further researches are needed in relation to pollination efficiencies of flower visiting insects and biochemical and genetic damage study of flowers as well as air pollution load by using instruments. It was concluded that three flowering species viz. sunflower, petunia and bougainvillea are very common both the parks but insect visitors are common but present less in number, which may be due to the vehicular pollution and/or human interference and/or landscape changes due to nearby neighborhood blocks, office and residential buildings etc.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 66%

Assessment of Flower Visiting Insects Diversity as Pollinators in Two Parks, Kolkata, India

Chowdhury¹,

Sarkar²,

Nandy

et al. 2014

ILNS

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“…The main flowering plant species in all three populations were Cirsium palustre, Comarum palustre, Lychnis flos-cuculi, Persicaria bistorta, and Valeriana repens. These plant species are visited by bumble bees as sources of pollen and/or nectar (see e.g., Comba et al 1999;Goulson and Darvill 2004;Guillén et al 2005). Pollen loads were collected from 58 bumble bee workers visiting Comarum palustre (Bombus hypnorum, n =11; B. lapidarius, n = 12; B. pascuorum, n=5; and B. terrestris s.l., n=30).…”

Section: Pollen Loads For Constancy Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen and nectar quality drive the major and minor floral choices of bumble bees

et al. 2014

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-To investigate whether floral resource quality impacts on bumble bee floral choices, we determined the pollen foraging constancy and floral choices of four bumble bee species commonly occurring in peaty, wet meadows in South Belgium. We subsequently analyzed the chemical contents of pollen and nectar, as well as the nectar production of the major host plant species. Individuals of B. lapidarius and B. pascuorum collected high-quality pollen (i.e., having high essential amino acid and phytosterol content) on Comarum palustre and Trifolium pratense, whereas individuals of B. terrestris s.l. and B. hypnorum enlarged their diet breadth to less valuable pollen resources (Cirsium palustre and Valeriana repens). Since Persicaria bistorta and Comarum palustre offer abundant and concentrated nectar, these plant species might represent major nectar sources for bumble bee species in peaty, wet meadows. The present study demonstrated the role of pollen composition on differences in foraging strategies among bumble bee species.amino acids / floral rewards / nectar sugars / phytosterols / polylectism

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“…The bumblebees preferred plants from the Labiateae family in which the plants were found in the open spaces (Brodie, 1996;Goulson et al, 2004) of the Cambridge University Botanical Garden (Comba et al, 1999) as well as the open spaces of allotment gardens (Ahrne, 2008). The results of the studies in the Wrocław Botanical Garden confirmed the bumblebee preference for the Labiatae family.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flower Preferences of the Wrocław Botanical Garden Bumblebees (Bombus spp.)

Sikora¹,

Kelm²

2012

Journal of Apicultural Science

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A n e t a S i k o r a , M a r i a K e l m S u m m a r y Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are morphologically different from each other as determined by the length of their tongue. Seven species of bumblebees were identified in the Wrocław Botanical Garden: the long-tongued Bombus hortorum, and the medium-tongued B. pascuorum, and the 5 short-tongued species, Bombus hypnorum, Bombus lapidarius, Bombus terrestris, Bombus lucorum, and Bombus pratorum. Bumblebees were observed so that their choice of food within the botanical family could be determined. The shape and colour choice of the flower was particularly noted. Bumblebees showed the highest degree of preference for the Lamiaceae family. The Boraginaceae family was also used by all of the recorded species. Bumblebees found pink and purple, lipped, capitular/ globular, and saucer-shaped flowers to be most attractive. The individual species of bumblebees showed different preferences, which may be explained by the differences in their morphology. However, bumblebee flower preference and selection seems to be more complex and requires further, detailed research.

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Flowers, Nectar and Insect Visits: Evaluating British Plant Species for Pollinator-friendly Gardens

Cited by 112 publications

References 22 publications

Assessment of Flower Visiting Insects Diversity as Pollinators in Two Parks, Kolkata, India

Assessment of Flower Visiting Insects Diversity as Pollinators in Two Parks, Kolkata, India

Pollen and nectar quality drive the major and minor floral choices of bumble bees

Flower Preferences of the Wrocław Botanical Garden Bumblebees (Bombus spp.)

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