COSEE Ocean Systems: News
Experimental evidence of pollination in marine flowers by invertebrate fauna
Description: Pollen transport by water-flow is a typical, and almost exclusive, adaptation of plants to life in the marine environment. It is thought that, unlike terrestrial environments, animals are not involved in pollination in the sea. The male flowers of the tropical marine angiosperm Thalassia testudinum open-up and release pollen in mucilage at night when invertebrate fauna is active. Here researchers present experimental evidence that, in the absence of water-flow, these invertebrates visit the flowers, carry and transfer mucilage mass with embedded pollen from the male flowers to the stigmas of the female flowers. Pollen tubes are formed on the stigmas, indicating that pollination is successful. [Source: Nature Communications]
URL: http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12980
Availability: Full Text
Source: Nature Communications
Publish Date: 9/29/2016
Reading Level: Expert
Page Length:  

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