New calculations indicate that 90% of flowering plant species are animal-pollinated.

Abstract

Abstract The number of angiosperms that may depend on animals for pollination has been difficult to estimate because the pollination modes of tens of thousands of species of tall trees, canopy climbers, and epiphytes, especially from the tropics, remain unknown. Ecological research over the past 50 years, however, has established a strong correlation between pollination by wind or water and particular flower traits. Based on a literature search for pollination-ecological data for the families, genera, and species compiled by the Global Biological Information Facility (GBIF) and the World Flora Online (WFO) databases, we estimated the number of species with abiotic pollination and then subtracted it from the total number of taxa. The results show that based on GBIF, 68% of 465 families, 88% of 14,437 genera, and 90% of 332,341 species rely on animal pollination. Based on WFO, 64% of 414 families, 88% of 13772 genera, and 90% of 339,876 species rely on animal pollination. Species exhibiting both pollination modes were identified in about 48 families and 0.1% of species. Finding that 90% of all angiosperm species depend on animals for cross pollination reinforces the importance of prioritizing the conservation of plant-pollinator interactions in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. These results match a previous estimate (87.5% or, after a mathematical correction, 89.5%) obtained by extrapolation from local community studies and also the finding that insects have pollinated flowering plants for most of angiosperm evolutionary history, a consilience of results that supports the validity of these estimates.