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Generalist birds outperform specialist sunbirds as pollinators of an African Aloe.
Diller, Carolina; Castañeda-Zárate, Miguel; Johnson, Steven D.
Afiliação
  • Diller C; Centre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermartizburg 3209, South Africa.
  • Castañeda-Zárate M; Centre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermartizburg 3209, South Africa.
  • Johnson SD; Centre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermartizburg 3209, South Africa.
Biol Lett ; 15(7): 20190349, 2019 07 26.
Article em En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31362606
Bird pollination systems are dominated by specialist nectarivores, such as hummingbirds in the Americas and sunbirds in Africa. Opportunistic (generalist) avian nectarivores such as orioles, weavers and bulbuls have also been implicated as plant pollinators, but their effectiveness as agents of pollen transfer is poorly known. Here, we compare the single-visit effectiveness of specialist and opportunistic avian nectarivores as pollinators of Aloe ferox, a plant that relies almost exclusively on birds for seed production. We found that the number of pollen grains on stigmas of flowers receiving single visits by opportunistic avian nectarivores was approximately threefold greater than on those receiving single visits by specialist sunbirds and about twofold greater than on those that received single visits by honeybees. The number of pollen grains on stigmas of flowers visited by sunbirds was similar to that on stigmas of unvisited flowers. These results show that opportunistic birds are highly effective pollinators of A. ferox, supporting the idea that some plants are specialized for pollination by opportunistic birds.
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Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Assunto principal: Passeriformes / Aloe Limite: Animals País/Região como assunto: Africa Idioma: En Revista: Biol Lett Assunto da revista: BIOLOGIA Ano de publicação: 2019 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: África do Sul

Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Assunto principal: Passeriformes / Aloe Limite: Animals País/Região como assunto: Africa Idioma: En Revista: Biol Lett Assunto da revista: BIOLOGIA Ano de publicação: 2019 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: África do Sul