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[Hal Love <lovehd@comcast.net>]

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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