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  • From: Hal Love <lovehd@comcast.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Bees Don't Like my Kiwis
  • Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:59:50 +0000 (UTC)

The female flowers do produce pollen, but it is non-viable.

While most species of kiwifruit rely on insects for pollination, I am pretty
sure that A. arguta is primarily wind pollinated.

Hal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Nave" <nave1@comcast.net>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2011 10:15:33 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Bees Don't Like my Kiwis

Also, if that's the case, I suppose the female flowers wouldn't even have
pollen...

Dan

On 6/9/2011 10:12 PM, Dan Nave wrote:
> According to this publication, the kiwi fruit does not produce nectar, and
> implies that they are
> visited by insects for the sake of their pollen.
>
> Dan
>
> http://www.pollinationcanada.ca/lit/Pollinator%20Awareness%20Paper.pdf
>
> "Pollen is secondary to nectar as a floral feed reward for most insects.
> Because it is rich in
> protein,
> between seven and 35%,57 and starch, it is a vital food to the minor or
> primitive pollinators, as
> well
> as to bee larvae, which are totally dependent on pollen, nectar and in some
> instances floral
> oils.26,56,71 In plants that don’t offer nectar, pollen can be rich in
> lipids, including sterols
> that are
> building blocks of hormones and pheromones. Pollen can also contain
> vitamins, enzymes and
> pigments. Special food bodies called staminodes (non-pollen-producing
> stamen) satiate
> floraldestructive
> insects.38 Some plants that need pollination, such as wild roses or kiwi
> fruit, don’t even
> produce nectar.19,37 Plants must ensure that any one visiting insect does
> not take so much pollen in
> one visit that pollination success is jeopardized by that insect either
> returning directly to its
> nest
> satiated or not leaving any floral rewards for the next visitor. Many
> complex flowers force bees to
> forage in a restricted position so that some pollen becomes attached to a
> part of their body that
> cannot be easily groomed into their pollen baskets,71 thereby ensuring
> pollen transfer."
>
>
>
> On 6/9/2011 12:59 PM, Douglas Woodard wrote:
>> It might have something to do with a local population buildup among
>> pollinators that like and/or can use kiwiflowers, and that benefit from
>> the availability of kiwi flowers. It would look to us like "learning."
>>
>> I draw an analogy with the custom among dairy farmers to change the
>> diets of their cows gradually so that the species composition of their
>> gut microorganisms on which they depend so heavily, has time to adjust.
>>
>> It may also have something to do with a decrease in the number of
>> species of pollinators in many places under modern conditions.
>>
>> Doug Woodard
>> St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
>>
>>
>> On 09/06/2011 1:36 PM, Alexander Brands wrote:
>>>
>>>> Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 19:52:28 -0700 (PDT)
>>>> From: John S<swim_at_svc@yahoo.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Bees Don't Like my Kiwis
>>>> To: North American Fruit Explorers<nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>>>>
>>>> Alan,
>>>>
>>>> I had a conversation with a local berry grower that also does kiwis
>>>> a couple of years back.? He indicated it can take years for the
>>>> local pollinators to discover and get used to kiwi.
>>> An interesting idea, but I'm skeptical. This would depend on
>>> individuals (pollinators) living for several years, wouldn't it?
>>>
>>> Perhaps another possibility along these lines would be that social
>>> pollinators don't easily find it, but once one of them does, it tells
>>> the others in the colony, ala the honeybee dance.....but this would
>>> still depend on individuals living more than one season and
>>> remembering where the kiwis are.
>>>
>>> I'm not aware of bees doing this, but I'm no expert, and it wouldn't
>>> be the first time someone underestimated the insects.
>>>
>>> Alex
>> _
>>
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