New Method of Pollination Discovered

Botanists have discovered a new method of self-pollination. Pollen of the horizontal flowers of Caulokaempferia coenobialis, a Chinese herb, is carried from the male anthers on an oily emulsion. This emulsion slides along the flower's style to the female stigma. Scientists studying the plant could find no evidence of another mechanism to move the pollen other than the flow of the oily secretion.

In areas with few natural pollinators, plants develop methods of self-pollination. Caulokaempferia coenobialis is found on shady rock walls in extremely humid conditions in southern China in an area of monsoon rains where insects cannot be relied upon for pollination.

Link: Pollen sliding as a new self-pollination mechanism from the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 5:25 PM on November 13, 2004

Want to talk about this weblog entry? As of August 22, 2006, all new entries and most older entries are cross-posted to the UBC Botanical Garden Discussion Forums for discussion (you might need to use the search function to find the thread you are looking for).

This is an effort to reduce the amount of time spent dealing with spam (the forums are very good at stopping spam, the weblog commenting system is not so good).

Older entries already containing comments remain open for discussion.