Abstract
ABSTRACT A number of pollination syndromes within the genus Nymphaea are examined. Adaptive radiation has created a wide range, from beetle-pollination with production of solid food bodies for the visitors to pollination by small Hymenoptera and syrphid flies with production of a pool of stigmatic fluid in which, on the first day of anthesis when the flower is functionally pistillate, pollinators drown. In the latter category, there is striking sophistication in the features that ensure proper deposition and germination of the pollen grains. In the tropical water lilies examined, the sugar level of the stigmatic fluid was 1%-1.5% which is well below the threshold of perception for honeybees regardless of the nature of the sugar; fructose and glucose were present in roughly equal concentrations. In Nymphaea odorata, a temperate zone water lily, the sugar concentration was about 3%, a considerable part of which was sucrose; glucose and fructose were again present in almost equal concentrations. No obvious b...
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