I have been told that honey bees are an important pollinator of cotton.
It is my understanding that early colonists brought European bees to America.
Since cotton was already established as a New World plant and I assume some
degree of cultivation was present what were the natural pollinators?
Is it unusual that a plant would evolve with one set of pollinators only to
have them suddenly supplanted by a more efficient one from an outside source?
What are the "natural" pollinators of cotton. How efficient are they? How
much more efficient are honey bees? Is it unusual for an established plant
to suddenly "discover" a more efficient means of pollination? Were the
natural pollinators displaced from a niche?
Charles Henry
Little Rock