ANBG Friends Plant Science Group - Technical Talk

Buzz Pollination of the Native Lasiandra, Melastoma affine (Melastomataceae), revisited and why plants have poricidal anthers

Speaker:  Dr Roger Farrow

Talk summary: I have become interested in the pollination syndrome that is the relationship between insect pollinator species and flower type, eg. beetles go to one type of flower, bees to another, butterflies to another etc, depending on the enticements.  When I saw native bees doing something strange on Melastoma flowers in the Daintree I found that there was a whole series of papers on this very activity mostly from SE Asia, but my observations indicate other dimensions of bee behaviour at these flowers.

Venue: ANBG Theatrette