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Ornithophily
Ornithophily or bird pollination is the pollination of flowering plants by birds. This sometimes (but not always) coevolutionary association is derived from insect pollination (entomophily) and is particularly well developed in some parts of the world, especially in the tropics, Southern Africa, and on some island chains. The association involves several distinctive plant adaptations forming a "pollination syndrome". The plants typically have colourful, often red, flowers with long tubular structures holding ample nectar and orientations of the stamen and stigma that ensure contact with the pollinator. Birds involved in ornithophily tend to be specialist nectarivores with brushy tongues and long bills, that are either capable of hovering flight or light enough to perch on the flower structures. Plant adaptations Plant adaptations for ornithophily can be grouped primarily into those that attract and facilitate pollen transfer by birds, and those that exclude other groups, primaril ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calceolaria Uniflora
''Calceolaria uniflora'' ( syn. ''Calceolaria darwinii'', known as Darwin's slipper) is a perennial plant of the genus ''Calceolaria'', known as the slipperworts. It is originally from Tierra del Fuego in the southern part of South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...."Botanica. The Illustrated AZ of over 10000 garden plants and how to cultivate them", pp. 166-167 Könemann, 2004. ''Calceolaria uniflora'' is a mountain plant growing only to 10 cm (4 in) tall. The flowers are a compound of yellow, white and brownish red. ''Calceolaria uniflora'' is an ornithophilic plant and is pollinated by the least seedsnipe. The seedsnipe eats the conspicuous white floral appendage on the lower lip of the flower, which is high in sugars. While the seedsnipe pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coevolution
In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well as gene-culture coevolution. Charles Darwin mentioned evolutionary interactions between flowering plants and insects in ''On the Origin of Species'' (1859). Although he did not use the word coevolution, he suggested how plants and insects could evolve through reciprocal evolutionary changes. Naturalists in the late 1800s studied other examples of how interactions among species could result in reciprocal evolutionary change. Beginning in the 1940s, plant pathologists developed breeding programs that were examples of human-induced coevolution. Development of new crop plant varieties that were resistant to some diseases favored rapid evolution in pathogen populations to overcome those plant defenses. That, in turn, required the development of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Least Seedsnipe
The least seedsnipe (''Thinocorus rumicivorus'') is a xerophilic species of bird in the Thinocoridae family. It breeds in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. They are common across South America and have been recorded in Ecuador, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, and as far away as Antarctica.Favero, M., & Silva, M. P. (1998). First Record of the Least Seedsnipe Thinocorus rumicivorus in the Antarctic. Ornitologia Neotropical, 10, 107-109. The range of the least seedsnipe is estimated to be about 1,300,000 km2. Its natural habitats are temperate grassland, subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, and pastureland, but it can be found in habitats ranging from sandy beaches to the open steppe, and even some open deserts in northern Chile.Lane A. A. (1897) Field notes on the birds of Chili. Ibis 3, 297-3 17.Ehlers, R., and M. L. Morton (1982). Metabolic rate and evaporative water loss in the Least Seed-Snipe Thinocorus rumicivorus. Comparative Biochemistry and Ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, and bats; water; wind; and even plants themselves, when self-pollination occurs within a closed flower. Pollination often occurs within a species. When pollination occurs between species, it can produce hybrid offspring in nature and in plant breeding work. In angiosperms, after the pollen grain (gametophyte) has landed on the stigma, it germinates and develops a pollen tube which grows down the style until it reaches an ovary. Its two gametes travel down the tube to where the gametophyte(s) containing the female gametes are held within the carpel. After entering an ovum cell through the micropyle, one male nucleus fuses with the polar bodies to produce the endosperm tissues, while the other fuses with the ovule to produce the embr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollination Syndrome
Pollination syndromes are suites of flower traits that have evolved in response to natural selection imposed by different pollen vectors, which can be abiotic (wind and water) or biotic, such as birds, bees, flies, and so forth through a process called pollinator-mediated selection. These traits include flower shape, size, colour, odour, reward type and amount, nectar composition, timing of flowering, etc. For example, tubular red flowers with copious nectar often attract birds; foul smelling flowers attract carrion flies or beetles, etc. The "classical" pollination syndromes were first studied in the 19th century by the Italian botanist Federico Delpino. Although they are useful in understanding of plant-pollinator interactions, sometimes the pollinator of a plant species cannot be accurately predicted from the pollination syndrome alone, and caution must be exerted in making assumptions. The naturalist Charles Darwin surmised that the flower of the orchid ''Angraecum sesquipeda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heliconias
''Heliconia'', derived from the Greek word (), is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the ca 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western Pacific and Maluku. Many species of ''Heliconia'' are found in the tropical forests of these regions. Most species are listed as either vulnerable or data deficient by the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Several species are widely cultivated as ornamentals, and a few are naturalized in Florida, Gambia, and Thailand. Common names for the genus include lobster-claws, toucan beak, wild plantain, or false bird-of-paradise. The last term refers to their close similarity to the bird-of-paradise flowers ('' Strelitzia''). Collectively, these plants are also simply referred to as "heliconias". Description These herbaceous plants range from 0.5 to nearly 4.5 m (1.5–15 ft) tall, depending on the species. The simple leaves of thes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banksia
''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range in size from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up to 30 metres (100 ft) tall. They are found in a wide variety of landscapes: sclerophyll forest, (occasionally) rainforest, shrubland, and some more arid landscapes, though not in Australia's deserts. Heavy producers of nectar, ''banksias'' are a vital part of the food chain in the Australian bush. They are an important food source for nectarivorous animals, including birds, bats, rats, possums, stingless bees and a host of invertebrates. Further, they are of economic importance to Australia's nursery and cut flower industries. However, these plants are threatened by a number of processes including land clearing, frequent burning and disease, and a number of species are rare and endangered. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babiana Ringens
''Babiana ringens'', the rat's tail, is a flowering plant endemic to Cape Province of South Africa. The foliage is long and erect with an inflorescence consisting of a sterile main stalk adapted for ornithophily, pollination by birds. The plant bears bright red, tubular flowers on side branches close to the ground. It is a perennial that grows in nutrient-poor sandy soil and flowers during the winter rains. The main stalk acts as a perch for birds, enabling birds to land within reach of the plant's flowers. The adaptation of the stalk was first noticed by Rudolf Marloth The bird that is the main pollinator of the plant is the malachite sunbird (''Nectarinia famosa''). The male sunbird is twice as likely to perch on the stalk as the female and, on average, spends four times longer on a perch. The stalk does seem to play a role in pollination as plants without a stalk produced only half as many seeds and see less cross-pollination as plants with a stalk intact. Accessing the flowe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malachite Sunbird
The malachite sunbird (''Nectarinia famosa'') is a small nectarivorous bird found from the highlands of Ethiopia southwards to South Africa. They pollinate many flowering plants, particularly those with long corolla tubes, in the Fynbos. Taxonomy The sunbirds are a group of small Old World passerine birds, and are placed within the family Nectariniidae, which is found across Africa, the Middle East and into South-east Asia. Also called green sugarbird. The malachite sunbird has two subspecies. The nominate ''N. f. famosa ''occurs mainly in South Africa, Lesotho and western Eswatini, although its range just extends into southern Namibia and Zimbabwe. ''N. f. cupreonitens'' breeds in the highlands from Ethiopia south to northern Mozambique. Description The breeding male malachite sunbird, which has very long central tail feathers, is 25 cm long, and the shorter-tailed female 15 cm. The adult male is metallic green when breeding, with blackish-green wings with small y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phaethornis Longirostris
The long-billed hermit (''Phaethornis longirostris'') is a bird in the family Trochilidae, the hummingbirds. It is found from central Mexico south through Central America, Colombia and Ecuador into Peru. Taxonomy and systematics It has often been considered conspecific with what is now the long-tailed hermit, ''P. superciliosus'', which is found east of the Andes. The two populations were called the western and eastern long-tailed hermits; the "eastern" was dropped after the split into two species and the renaming of the western population.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021 The South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the American Ornithological Society, the Internatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disa (plant)
''Disa'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Orchidaceae. It comprises about 182 species. Most of the species are indigenous to tropical and southern Africa, with a few more in the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, and Réunion.Hans Peter Linder and Hubert Kurzweil. 1999. ''Orchids of Southern Africa''. 504 pages. A. A. Balkema. . ''Disa bracteata'' is naturalised in Western Australia, where the local name is "African weed-orchid." The genus ''Disa'' was named by P.J. Bergius in 1767.Peter Jonas Bergius. 1767. ''Descriptiones Plantarum ex Capite Bonae Spei'': 348. (See ''External links'' below). It was named after Disa, the heroine of a Swedish legend.Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'' volume II. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington,DC;, USA. London, UK. (vol. II). (see ''External links'' below). Description The plants grow from a fleshy tuberous root which is a source of maltodextrins which are used as a sugar substitute. Some s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dicaeidae
The flowerpeckers are a family, Dicaeidae, of passerine birds. The family comprises two genera, ''Prionochilus'' and ''Dicaeum'', with 50 species in total. The family has sometimes been included in an enlarged sunbird family Nectariniidae. The berrypeckers of the family Melanocharitidae and the painted berrypeckers, Paramythiidae, were once lumped into this family as well. The family is distributed through tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines and south to Australia. The family has a wide range occupying a wide range of environments from sea level to montane habitats. Some species, such as the mistletoebird of Australia, are recorded as being highly nomadic over parts of their range. The enigmatic ‘Spectacled Flowerpecker’—a probable new bird species from the island of Borneo—was first sighted in the Danum Valley of Sabah, Malaysia in 2009.There is little variation in structure between species in the family although many have distinctiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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