Successful pollination of the Neotropical cropSolanum quitoensebyBombus terrestris: behaviour, efficiency and yield
| Autor: | Gabriela Rossi, Markus Michael Franz Martini, Marianne Lauerer, Jana Messinger, John Samuels |
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| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Pollen source Pollination biology Bombus atratus biology.organism_classification 01 natural sciences food.food 010602 entomology Horticulture food Pollinator Insect Science Self-pollination Bombus terrestris Solanum quitoense Botany Agronomy and Crop Science Bumblebee 010606 plant biology & botany |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Applied Entomology. 140:124-134 |
| ISSN: | 0931-2048 |
| Popis: | The South American lulo (Solanum quitoense Lam.) is a crop plant of the Andes of Ecuador and Colombia, pollinated by South American bumblebees, such as, Bombus atratus Franklin. The cultivation of lulo outside of its native range, for example in European glasshouses, requires the presence of efficient pollinators to enable high fruit set and yield. Until now, the suitability of Bombus terrestris L., native to Europe and commonly used in agriculture, has been untested for this purpose. In this study, the pollencollecting behaviour of B. terrestris when visiting lulo flowers was investigated. It was shown that B. terrestris adopted the lulo as a pollen source, and on average visited three flowers per minute, had five buzzing events per stay and foraged for 15 s on a single flower, independently of the previous number of visits and level of bruising to the anthers. The pollination efficiency of five different treatments was evaluated: (i) exclusion of bees, (ii) single and (iii) multiple visits of B. terrestris, (iv) self- and (v) cross-pollination by hand. The results clearly demonstrated that, for fruit set, pollination is crucial. It was also found that lulo flowers can be successfully self-pollinated, but give 25% fewer fruit set compared with pollination via multiple bumblebee visits, or cross-pollination by hand. Fruit set, seed set and fruit size were as high with pollination by B. terrestris as with crosspollination by hand, indicating that this bumblebee is an appropriate pollinator for lulo. However, B. terrestris was conspicuously less effective when a flower was visited only once. Therefore, when growing lulos commercially, multiple bumblebee visits should be encouraged, but it is likely that the behaviour of B. terrestris would ensure this anyway. Our results indicate that B. terrestris is a suitable and efficient pollinator for the production of lulo fruits. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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