Flowering Plants and Pollination by Animals

How many flowering plants are pollinated by animals

Jeff Ollerton,Rachael Winfree, Sam Tarrant

Article first published online: 21 FEB 2011

Oikos

Volume 120, Issue 3, pages 321–326, March 2011

This is a fascinating paper on pollination.

Majority of flowering plants are pollinated by insects and other animals. A minority utilizes abiotic pollen vectors, mainly wind. Plant–pollinator interactions play a significant role in maintaining the functional integrity of most terrestrial ecosystems.

There is no accurate published calculation of the proportion of the ca 352 000 species of angiosperms that interact with pollinators. The estimates vary from 67% to 96% but these are not based on firm data. 

Here an attempt was made by the researchers to estimate the number and proportion of flowering plants that are pollinated by animals using published and unpublished community-level surveys of plant pollination systems.

The researchers say the proportion of animal-pollinated species rises from a mean of 78% in temperate-zone communities to 94% in tropical communities. By correcting for the latitudinal diversity trend in flowering plants, they estimate the global number and proportion of animal pollinated angiosperms as 308 006, which is 87.5% of the estimated species-level diversity of flowering plants. Given current concerns about the decline in pollinators and the possible resulting impacts on both natural communities and agricultural crops, such estimates are vital to both ecologists and policy makers.