An overview of plant–pollinator relationships in southern Africa

Abstract

A particularly rich array of pollination systems is represented in the flora of southern Africa. Hopliine beetles, long-proboscid flies, satyrine butterflies, hawk moths, birds and rodents appear to assume greater importance as pollinators than they do in other temperate regions. These ’alternative’ pollination systems may have developed because the bee-fauna of southern Africa is not particularly rich relative to the flora. Pollination by moths, for example, is relatively frequent in the eastern half of southern Africa where bee diversity is lowest. Pollination systems in southern Africa are relatively specialized and shifts between pollinators have been shown to be an important driving force in plant diversification and speciation. Changes in land-use, particularly afforestation and ploughing of grasslands, invasion of alien plants, overgrazing and urban developments have disrupted these mutualisms with mostly unknown consequences for ecosystem functioning. Future research will be directed at expanding our knowledge of pollination systems, with a strong focus on the conservation of mutualistic ecological interactions.