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Date: | Fri, 1 May 2020 14:05:07 +0000 |
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"So, those plants that produce nectar today do so solely because their
ancestors did so, and got pollinated."
I agree with James. At some point in the ancestry that nectar must have had some useful function and pollination is the only useful function I can think of. That ancestry might have been a few evolutionary species in the past and could well simply be "a metaphorical appendix" that still exists, but provides no useful function today. Consider soy beans. Some varieties produce reasonable amounts of nectar under some climate conditions. Yet the soy bean flower is usually self pollinated before the flower even opens. It can grow and produce a normal yield of seeds without ever seeing any pollinator at all. It does not even need wind to pollinate. In fact only caged experiments show any evidence at all that soy bean yields are increased even a little bit by highly intense pollination by bees. Yet, lots of bee keepers make a harvestable honey crop off soy beans. Today that nectar production is a total waste to the farmer. It is wasted energy that the plant could have used to make another 1% harvestable yield of beans. Perhaps worse it is food for bacteria and fungi that might harm a developing bean. I would expect with a bit more selection to increase yield we bee keepers might well see the nectar production drop on this crop as it serves no useful function. It is simply vestigial. Even today many cultivars do not produce nectar in measurable amounts.
Dick
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