What is ‘Buzz pollination’?
What makes bumblebees such good pollinators?
Bumblebees are excellent pollinators of many crops and wild plants. Without them our landscape would be far less colourful and varied. So, what makes them such good pollinators?
- Bumblebees have hairy bodies. Each hair is forked at the tip which makes them great at gathering and transporting pollen between flowers.
- Tongue length. Short-tongued bumblebees forage on flowers with short corollas (the tube leading to the nectar), whereas long-tongued bumblebees feed from more complex flowers with long corollas. This means that, as a group, bumblebees pollinate a wide variety of different flowers.
- Buzz pollination. Bumblebees have a superpower, they are able to ‘buzz pollinate’.
So, what is buzz pollination?
Plants produce pollen so that they can fertilise other flowers and eventually produce seeds to make new plants. However, it takes a lot of energy for a plant to produce pollen, so they don’t want it to be wasted. To reduce the amount of pollen being lost or taken by animals, some plants, like tomatoes, have developed the ability to hang on tight to theirs.
Most insects are unable to access this pollen, but bumblebees have a superpower. They are able to contract their flight muscles and produce strong vibrations which result in an explosion of pollen grains from the flower. Using her legs, the pollen covered bumblebee will then comb most of the pollen grains from her fur into the pollen baskets on her hind legs. There are usually so many pollen grains that she will inevitably miss a few, but these won’t go to waste. As the bumblebee continues to forage, the loose pollen falls off on and will go on to fertilise one of the next flowers she visits.
Blueberries, tomatoes, aubergines and kiwis are just some examples of the many plant species that require this form of pollination. Thank you bumblebees!
