Floral nectar: pollinator attraction or manipulation?

Graham H. Pyke*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalShort surveypeer-review

    63 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The literature suggests that floral nectar acts principally to attract pollinator visitation (and/or revisitation), thereby enhancing plant reproductive success. However, floral nectar also manipulates pollinator behaviour during and immediately following plant visits, affecting pollen transfer, and plant reproduction. I argue that floral nectar should really be viewed as a pollinator manipulant rather than attractant, thus potentially explaining why its concentration is not generally high and why it decreases with increasing pollinator body size. Otherwise, such patterns may remain mysterious and unexplained.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)339-341
    Number of pages3
    JournalTrends in Ecology and Evolution
    Volume31
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2016

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