Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to determine if flower color preference of honey bees (Apis meilifera L.) influenced the cross pollination of male sterile (ms2ms2) cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.). Since growth habits of cowpeas, ranging from acute erect and determinate to prostrate or climbing and indeterminate, result in different numbers of flowers produced per plant, growth habits were taken into consideration when computing bee preference for different flower colors. Plants with prostrate indeterminate growth habit and completely pigmented flowers produced significantly more pods than any other combination. For recurrent selection programs using male‐sterile cowpeas, natural cross‐pollination by bees may lead to marked shifts in gene frequencies for dark seed coat colors because flower pigmentation and seed colors are pleiotropically associated.
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