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Pollination Without Insects
I knew that each and every plant needs to be fertilized to produce seeds and to continue the species.  What I did not know was how many of the articles I would read during research would be so scientific and hard to comprehend.  I could probably write a 500 word article on just the long words and scientific phrases that I came across.  What follows is a simple version of something that really is complicated, diverse, essential and amazing and except for the moth, does not mention insects.

Plants can be pollinated by wind, water, birds, and insects and by the plant producing both pollen and ovule to enable it to fertilize itself.   Now that is independence. Each plant is specifically designed to attract what it needs. 

Humming Birds
Flowers that need humming birds deter other insects and birds by producing a downward tilting flower, often bell shaped. The birds need to hover as there is no where for them to sit when they take the nectar. Floral nectar is composed almost entirely of water and simple carbohydrates, laced with trace amounts of protein and electrolytes. Hummingbirds supplement their diet with insects
for protein. Researchers discovered that these tiny birds take in four or five times their own body weight every 12 hours, but they do not have a bladder. Instead liquid waste goes straight to the kidneys and is expelled as it is produced.  (Once again humming bird facts have me shaking my head.)

The flowers they visit have little odour as humming birds have a poor sense of smell.  However they have excellent eye sight and are attracted to red and yellow.
(Now you understand the design of humming bird feeders) The birds lap up the nectar with their tongues and distribute pollen when they visit the next plant.
http://www.rubythroat.org/RTHUMain.html

Bent Beak
In Hawaii, nectar feeding honey creeper birds have a dramatically curved bill designed to probe and extract nectar from lobelias and other plants.

In South Africa the Milkweed plant is pollinated by the South African Sunbird, its beak can penetrate the tightly closed flower.

Moths
Moth-pollinated plants often have spurs or tubes the exact length of a certain moth’s “tongue.” For example, Charles Darwin predicted the existence of a moth in Madagascar based on the size and shape of a flower he saw there. The moth was actually discovered about 40 years later.

No moths – no yuccas
Yucca flowers are a certain shape so only that tiny moth can pollinate them. The moths lay their eggs in the yucca flowers and the larvae (caterpillars) live in the developing ovary and eat yucca seeds.
In Madagascar a giant hawk moth has a proboscis 9” long, used to feed on deep throated orchids.

Bats that Smell
Bats are nocturnal with a good sense of smell. Those bats which are pollinating species also have good vision and a long, bristly tongue. They are attracted to flowers that open at night usually white or light-colored with a musty odour.
These flowers must be large and sturdy to withstand insertion of a bat’s head.

Bats pollinate most of the rainforest canopy trees on oceanic islands, as well as many economically important plants such as bananas, agave, durians, and several species of eucalyptus

Bats with very long noses and tongues use these special adaptations to more efficiently obtain nectar. They, and the plants that rely them, live throughout the world's tropical and subtropical areas, sometimes so well adapted to each other
that neither can survive alone.

Northern Cactus
The saguaro cactus  lives the farthest north where pollinators are less predictable and keeps its flowers open both night and day, relying on birds and bees in addition to bats.

You might not like bats but they put food on the table.
Bats pollinate plants that produce chocolate, cloves, coconut, bananas, allspice, cashews, dates, figs, mangoes, avocados, peaches and breadfruit, for starters. They pollinate agave plants, which yield mescal and tequila. When agaves are hand pollinated, their production drops to 1/3,000th of those plants which are visited by bats. Bats pollinate the neem tree, a source of non-poisonous pesticides. They visit the plants which yield cork, balsa wood, ebony, latex, chicle, (main ingredient of chewing gum) kapok and sisal.

Not feeling well?
Bats pollinate plants which are involved in the production of cortisones, salves, astringents, emetics and anthelmintics, (used to expel or destroy intestinal worms)..
Do you love the earth? Bats, through pollination and seed dispersal, are responsible for over 90% of rain forest reforestation

From Pat Barbosa.  Wildlife America, Inc.
http://www.getlostmagazine.com/features/2004/0412bats/bats.html

Blowing in the Wind
Flowers are often small and inconspicuous since they do not need to attract insects. They do not produce nectar and they do not have any scent. Most trees and grasses have wind-pollinated flowers that  appear in the early spring when
leaves are not yet present to interfere with pollen movement Corn, something most of us are familiar with  uses the wind for pollination.  A male flower grows at the top of the plant and female down the stalk.  Wind blows the dry grains of pollen throughout the crop to produce the ears of corn we are so familiar with.

Water
The Fragrant Water Lily does not release its pollen on the first day of flowering.  Instead instead, a fluid fills the centre of the flower, covering the female parts.
When  an insect visit the flower, the design of the petals causes it to fall into the fluid. Any pollen carried by the insect is dissolved in the fluid and fertilizes the flower.The next day, no fluid is produced, and pollen is released instead. The insect that falls into the fluid usually emerges unharmed, although a few unlucky ones may be trapped and drown.

A few days after the Water Lily flower is pollinated, the flower stem tightens in a spiraling spring to bring the flower head underwater. The fruit develops underwater into a spongy berry with many seeds. When ripe, up to 2,000 seeds are
released from each fruit. Young seeds float as they contain air pockets. They are then dispersed by water currents or by water birds that eat them. As they become waterlogged, they sink into the mud to germinate.

3 Did You Know Quick Fact / Question
The Sahara desert in Africa is as large as all of the United States. It covers an area of over 3 million square miles! 

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This is worth repeating.
Please take the time to watch this short video about a form of breast cancer that might not be common, but can be deadly due to lack of infomation
http://ww3.komotv.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?ClipID1=785456&amp
http://komotv.com/stories/43313.htm
 
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