Using a mobile stamen to slap away insect visitors maximizes pollination and minimizes costs to flowers, a study shows. For centuries scientists have observed that when a visiting insect's tongue ...

Many plants, including crops and the beautiful flowers we like to surround ourselves with, rely on pollination for survival. Pollination is not just the work of honeybees. Meet some of the buzzing, ...

When pollination occurs in these flowers, we call it self-pollination. Other plants have differentiated male and female flowers. When pollination occurs in these flowers, we call it cross-pollination.

Pollinators, the wide variety of insects and animals that transfer pollen from one part of a plant to another, causing the plant to fertilize, are an incredibly important part of our ecosystem. And ...

Plants existed on Earth for hundreds of millions of years before the first flowers bloomed. But when flowering plants did evolve, more than 140 million years ago, they were a huge evolutionary success ...

For centuries scientists have observed that when a visiting insect's tongue touches the nectar-producing parts of certain flowers, the pollen-containing stamen snaps forward. The new study proves that ...

Ruby E. Stephens receives funding from the Australian Government's Research Training Program. Hervé Sauquet receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Australian Research Data Commons.