Question

Give two floral adaptations of bird pollinated plants.

Answer 1

Hint: By the process of pollination, pollen grains from male anther are transferred to the female stigma of the flower. It is beneficial to plants and pollinators. Birds also help fertilize plants just as other pollinators do. Some examples of bird pollinators are hummingbirds, sunbirds and the honeycreepers. Bird pollination is also termed as Ornithophily.

Complete answer:
- Flowers that the birds visit are generally very sturdy and oriented in such a manner that birds can stay near to it without damaging or entangling their wings.
- Flowers that are bright in color, odorless and open at day time are pollinated by the birds.
- For the comfort of the bird’s beak, the flowers attain a curved and tubular shape.
- When the bird takes up the nectar that is rich in energy, the pollen will be deposited on the bird’s body part like head or neck and then will be transferred to the next flower that it goes to.
- Thus two aspects; flower nectar and flower colors are majorly responsible for bird pollinated plants.

Note: Pollination are of two types; they are cross-pollination and self-pollination. Pollination can also commonly occur by the bats, wind and water. Food deception occurs in some orchid species where only bright colors and perfume are offered to their pollinators, but get no food. This way they play the trickery game. Few advantages of cross pollination include; variation in gene pool, better evolution scope, breeding of new varieties of species. However on the other side, it is a time consuming process.