bartholomewkelly
Bee on an Azalea
Featured in this photo is a beautiful azalea with a bee inside. These flowers and the bees around them were found outside of the POD market by the Landing on the UNCW campus around 1 pm on March 29, 2017. Azaleas belong to a genus known as Rhododendron. I've identified this one to be R. vaseyi, one of the five azalea species with pink petals, based on its number of stamen and shape of its petals. Azaleas are very popular in Wilmington, even owing their name to a large local community celebration known as the Azalea Festival which occurs in early April. What's taking place in this picture is a special type of mutualistic symbiotic relationship called pollination. Pollination is the transfer of pollen (the male gamete) from the stamen of one plant to the stigma of another for sexual reproduction. Sometimes pollination takes place on the same individual, known as self-pollination. Pollination can be accomplished by abiotic factors such as wind or water but is often done by organisms which have a close relationship to the flower being pollinated. These relationships have coevolved so powerfully in some cases that specific species of insects exclusively pollinate specific plants. This act of pollination is very important for the dispersal of the plant and genetic variability (pollen can travel to distant flowers instead of self-pollination or nearby ones). Bees by doing this are providing an ecosystem service, serving to uphold the ecosystem this azalea is a part of. Humans could theoretically move the pollen from one plant to another allowing for sexual reproduction but this would of course be a long, tedious, expensive process that instead is accomplished by nature in the form of these bees. The relationship is mutualistic because the bees get food from the flower in exchange for spreading the pollen.
Bee on an Azalea
Featured in this photo is a beautiful azalea with a bee inside. These flowers and the bees around them were found outside of the POD market by the Landing on the UNCW campus around 1 pm on March 29, 2017. Azaleas belong to a genus known as Rhododendron. I've identified this one to be R. vaseyi, one of the five azalea species with pink petals, based on its number of stamen and shape of its petals. Azaleas are very popular in Wilmington, even owing their name to a large local community celebration known as the Azalea Festival which occurs in early April. What's taking place in this picture is a special type of mutualistic symbiotic relationship called pollination. Pollination is the transfer of pollen (the male gamete) from the stamen of one plant to the stigma of another for sexual reproduction. Sometimes pollination takes place on the same individual, known as self-pollination. Pollination can be accomplished by abiotic factors such as wind or water but is often done by organisms which have a close relationship to the flower being pollinated. These relationships have coevolved so powerfully in some cases that specific species of insects exclusively pollinate specific plants. This act of pollination is very important for the dispersal of the plant and genetic variability (pollen can travel to distant flowers instead of self-pollination or nearby ones). Bees by doing this are providing an ecosystem service, serving to uphold the ecosystem this azalea is a part of. Humans could theoretically move the pollen from one plant to another allowing for sexual reproduction but this would of course be a long, tedious, expensive process that instead is accomplished by nature in the form of these bees. The relationship is mutualistic because the bees get food from the flower in exchange for spreading the pollen.