Abstract
Grewia flavescens Juss. is an underutilised fruit species found throughout semi-arid and sub-humid parts of the world including India. For the first time, an attempt was made to study the role of different flower visitors on fruit set of G. flavescens. We have recorded different floral visitors, activity patterns, foraging behavior and their role in fruit set. A total of 25 species of floral visitors were recorded, of which Megachilidae (48.35%) was the most abundant group followed by Apidae (27.21%), Halictidae (10.29%) and others (14.15%). Among floral visitors, the foraging rate and foraging speed of Megachile and Xylocopa were studied. They were also effective in depositing more pollen on the stigmatic surface per visit than other flower visitors. Fruit-set was higher (71.42%) in open pollinated flowers than in artificial-cross pollinated (68.33%). Whereas, artificially-selfed and pollinator excluded flowers resulted in the lowest fruit-set (22.22% and 8.95%, respectively). G. flavescens is a self-compatible species but favouring cross pollination and also exhibited delayed self pollination to ensure reproductive success in the absence of an effective pollinator.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akram W, Sajjad A, Ali S, Farooqi MA, Mujtaba G, Ali M, Ahmad A (2019) Pollination of Grewia asiatica (Malvaceae) by Megachile cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae): male vs. female pollination . Sociobiol 66:467–474
Barrett SCH, Charlesworth D (1991) Effects of a change in the level of inbreeding on the genetic load. Nature 352:522–524. https://doi.org/10.1038/352522a0
Bosch M, Waser NM (1999) Effects of local density on pollination and reproduction in Delphinium nuttallianum and Aconitum columbianum (Ranunculaceae). Am J Bot 86:871–879
Burd M (1994) Bateman’s principle and plant reproduction: the role of pollen limitation in fruit and seed set. Bot Rev 60:83–139
Cane JH, Schiffhauer D (2003) Dose-response relationships between pollination and fruiting refine pollinator comparisons for cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon, Ericaceae). Am J Bot 90:1425–1432. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.90.10.1425
Cruden RW, Lyon DL (1989) Facultative xenogamy: examination of a mixed mating system. In: Bock JH, Linhart YB (eds) The evolutionary ecology of plants. Westview Press, Boulder, pp 171–207
Darwin CR (1862) On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects. John Murray, London
Deb D, Singh JP, Deb S, Datta D, Ghosh A, Chaurasia RS (2017) An alternative approach for estimating above ground biomass using Resourcesat-2 satellite data and artificial neural network in Bundelkhand region of India. Environ Monit Assess 189:576. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-6307-6
Engel CE, Irwin RI (2003) Linking pollinator visitation rate and pollen receipt. Am J Bot 90:1612–1618. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.90.11.1612
Faegri K, van der Pijl L (1979) The principles of pollination ecology. Pergamon Press, Oxford
FAO/WHO (1988) Requirements of vitamin A, iron, folate and vitamin B12. Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation. FAO Food Nutr. Ser. No. 23, Rome, FAO
Galen CM, Stanton L (1989) Bumble bee pollination and floral morphology: factors influencing pollen dispersal in the alpine sky pilot, Polemonium viscosum (Polemoniaceae). Am J Bot 76:419–426
Gebauer J, El-Siddig K, El Tahir BA, Salih AA, Ebert G, Hammer K (2007) Exploiting the potential of indigenous fruit trees: Grewia tenax (Forssk.) Fiori in Sudan. Genet Resour Crop Evol 54:1701–1708
Gebauer J, Bernholt H, Hammer K (2013) Grewia flavescens: a potential horticultural crop? Genet Resour Crop Evol 60:1915–1919
Harder LD, Thomson JD (1989) Evolutionary options for maximizing pollen dispersal of animal – pollinayted plants. Am Nat 133:323–344
Jones KNJ, Reithel S (2001) Pollinator-meditated selection on a flower color polymorphism in experimental populations of Antirrhinum (Scrophulariaceae). Am J Bot 88:447–454
Kirtikar KR, Basu BD (1975) Indian medicinal plants. Basu LM and Co., Allahabad
Kudo G (2003) Anther arrangement influences pollen deposition and removal in hermaphrodite flowers. Funct Ecol 17:349–355. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2435.2003.00736.x
Kumar V, Uthappa AR, Srivastava M, Vijay D, Kumaranag KM, Manjunatha N, Rana M, Newaj R, Handa AK, Chaturvedi OP (2017) Floral biology of Grewia flavescens Juss: an underutilized crop. Genet Resour Crop Evol 64:1789–1795. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-017-0536-y
Kumar V, Belavadi VV, Revanasidda TKB, Srinivasa YB (2019) Stamen elongation in sunn hemp appears to allow delayed self-pollination in the absence of pollinators – a case of bet-hedging? S Afr J Bot 127:110–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2019.08.052
Margaret JC, Walter CM, Blows EM, Czaczkes TJ, Alton KL, Ratnieks FLW (2015) Busy bees: variation in insect flower-visiting rates across multiple plant species. Psyche 2015:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/134630
Mitchell RJ (1992) Testing evolutionary and ecological hypotheses using path analysis and structural equation modelling. Funct Ecol 6:123–129. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2389745
Mohammed EGO, Yagi SM (2010) Nutritional composition of Grewia species (Grewia tenax (Forsk.) Fiori, G. flavescens Juss and G. Villosa Willd) fruits. Adv J Food Sci Technol 2:159–162
Revanasidda, Belavadi VV (2019) Floral biology and pollination in Cucumis melo L., a tropical andromonoecious cucurbit. J Asia Pac Entomol 22:215–225
SAS Institute Inc, SAS 9.1.3 Help and Documentation, Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc, 2002-2004.
Team RC (2013) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. http://www.R-project.org/
Veereshkumar, Kaushik SK, Rajarajan K, Kumaranag KM, Uthappa AR, Sridhar KB, Badre Alam, Handa AK (2020) Pollination biology of Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre: a potential biodiesel plant. Genet Resour Crop Evol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-020-01010-6
Waser NM, Price MV (1991) Outcrossing distance effects in Delphinium nelsonii: pollen loads, pollen tubes, and seed set. Ecology 72:171–179. https://doi.org/10.2307/1938912
Whitehouse C, Cheek M, Andrews SM, Verdcourt B (2001) Flora of tropical East Africa: Tiliaceae and Muntingiaceae. Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, Rotterdam
Zietsman PC (1991) Reproductive biology of Grewia occidentalis L. (Tiliaceae). S Afr J Bot 57:348–351
Acknowledgments
We thank R. M. Borges, Professor, Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; V.V Belavadi, Professor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; Jacob M Heiling, Ph.D. Scholar, Ecology Department, North Carolina State University; Ignasi Bartomeus, Researcher, Department of Integrative Ecology, Doñana Biological Station, Island of the Cartuja, Spain; Revanasidda, Scientist, Indian Institute of Pulse Research, Kanpur for useful discussions during the course of the study and for their valuable inputs and critical review of the manuscript. VK also thank Sunil Naik, Ph.D. Scholar, Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi for his help in taking observations.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 15 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Veereshkumar, Kumaranag, K.M., Uthappa, A.R. et al. Wild bee pollination in Grewia flavescens Juss.. Int J Trop Insect Sci 41, 1087–1093 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-020-00294-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-020-00294-6