The pollination work of Bees.
If we look at the many colourful and different looking flowers, we should not forget that they have developed as an adaptation for the bees and other pollinators, and not to please humans! Bees and most flowering plants have developed a complex interdependence during millions of years. An estimated 80 percent of flowering plants are entomophilous i.e. depending more or less on insect pollination to be able to reproduce, and it is estimated that half of the pollinators of tropical plants are bees. The efficiency of honeybees is due to their great numbers, their physique and their behaviour of foraging on only one plant species at one time. The bees have to find their food in flowers. The food can be nectar or pollen. Nectar is produced to attract the bees. Pollen is also attracting the bees, but it has another function too: it is produced to ensure the next generation of plants. Bee pollinated flowers have evolved in such a way that a visiting bee has to brush against the flower’s ...