Cross pollination
It involves the transfer of pollen grains from the flower of one plant to the stigma of another plant. It is called cross pollination, xenogamy or allogamy.
Methods of cross pollination
The methods of cross pollination are categorised in two groups -
a) Abiotic agents i.e wind current, gravity, water etc.
b) Biotic agents - such as animals, birds, insects, bats etc.
Abiotic agents or methods
i) Anemophily (anemos means wind and philein-to love)
It is the mode of pollination or transfer of pollen grains from anther to stigma through agency of wind. The flower which are wind pollinated are called anemophilous.
The characteristics of anemophilous flowers are -
i) Flowers are small colourless, inconspicuous, odourless and nectarless.
ii)Calyx and corolla are either reduced or absent. Anthers are usually versatile.
iii) When flowers are unisexual, male flowers are more abundant than female flowers. In bisexual flowers, the stamens are generally numerous.
iv) pollen grains are small, light, dry, dusty and sometimes winged so that they are easily blown away to long distance.
v)The flowers are well exposed in the air.
vi) Pollen grains of anemophilous flowers are produced in huge quantity.
vii) The sigmas are large, well-exposed, hairy, feathery or branched to catch the air -borne pollen grains.
viii) In some plants, the anthers burst suddenly to throw the pollen grains into the air (gun powder mechanism).
Pollination by wind
Example of wind pollinated flower are-
Grasses, Sugarcane, bamboo, coconut,palm, date palm, cannabis, maize etc.
ii) Hydrophily(water pollination)
It is a mode of pollination or transfer of pollen grains from the anthers to the stigma through the agency of water.
The characteristics of the Hydrophilous plants are as follows -
i) Flowers are small, colourless, inconspicuous, odourless and nectarless.
ii) Calyx, corrola and other floral parts are unwettable.
iii) Pollen grains and stigma are generally unwettable.
iv) The stigma are long and sticky.
Example of Hydrophilous plants are -Vallisneria, Zostera,Ceratophyllum, Hydrilla etc.
In Vallisneria, a submerged fresh water hydrophyte, is a dioecious plant i.e male flower borne on male plants and female flower borne on female plants. Mature male flower are abscised from the spadix and float on the surface of water. The mature female flowers also float on the surface of water,but remain attached to the female plant with the help of long stalks. The floating female flower have large sticky stigmas , so when anthers burst to release the pollen grains,it get attached to the female stigmas for the purpose of pollination on the surface of water. After fertilization, the female flowers are pulled down inside the water by the coiling of the flower stalk.
Pollination in VALLISNERIA
iii) Ornithophily (pollination by Birds)
It is the mode of pollination performed by birds. The most common bird pollinators are Sun bird, Humming bird,Crow, Bulbul, Parrot,Mynah etc.
The characteristics of the ornithophilous flowers are as follows -
i) the flowers are usually large in size. They have tubular or funnel shaped corollas.
ii) The flowers are bright coloured which attract the birds from the long distances.
iii) The flowers produce abundant watery nectar.
iv) They are usually scentless.
Pollination by birds
Example of ornithophilous plants are - Bombax( Red Silk Cotton), Bottle brush, Bignonia, Agave etc.
iv) Chiropterophily(Bat Pollination)
It is the mode of pollination performed by bats. The bats are nocturnal which move swiftly and transport pollen grains to long distance.
Characteristics of the chiropterophilous
plants are-
i) The flowers are large, dull coloured and have a strong scent.
ii) These flowers produce abundant pollen grains and secrete more nectar than ornithophilous flowers.
Example of chiropterophilous plants are - kigelia pinnata, Adansonia,Bauhinia megalandra, Anthocephalus.
v) Entomophily ( Insect pollination)
It is the mode of pollination or transfer of anthers to the stigmas by the insects.
The entomophilous flowers are characterized by the following adaptations -
i) The flowers are usually large, conspicuous, brightly coloured and showy to attract insects.
ii) In this, petals of flowers are large and attractive. When they are small and inconspicuous, other parts of the plants are enlarge and become attractive.
iii) Small flowers bloom in bunches to attract the insects. Sometimes, they are condensed together to form a head.(e.g sunflower).
iv) Different colour of flowers attract different insects.
v) Entomophilous flowers usually blossom at specific time when particular insects or pollinators are available.
vi)These types of flowers usually produce specific odour to attract specific insects.
vii) pollen grains of certain flowers are edible. Many insects visit these flowers to eat their pollen grains or to carry them for their brood of larvae.
viii) Nectar secrete from their nectaries, is an important source of food for certain insects pollinators.
ix) The outer surface of pollen grains may be rough, spiny or sticky. It possess yellow sticky substance called pollenkit which acts as insect attractants and as an adherent to the insect body.
A detailed example of entomophily pollination in SALVIA
The salvia genus belongs to family Labiate in which the gamopetalous corolla is two -lipped . The lower lip provides platform for the visiting insects and upper lip is just like a hood which protects the floral organs. The flowers are protandrous. Each flower has two epipetalous stamens located anterio-lateral in position. Each stamen has a short filament and an elongated curved connectives. The anther has two parts - one half is sterile and another half is fertile. Both parts of anther are separated apart due to elongation of connective. The elongated connective has two unequal arms. The upper arm is long and curved. It bears the fertile lobe of anther. The lower arm of connective is short and bears sterile lobe of anther. The two sterile lobes jointly form a sterile plate of tissue which is placed at the mouth of corolla tube and partly blocks the path of the visiting insects.As a bee visit the young flower and moves inward in search of nectar,it's head pushes sterile plate which brings down the fertile lobes to strike against its back. The pollen grains are deposited upon the back of the bee. When the bee visit older flowers, its back rubs against the mature stigma bringing about the pollination.
