[Pollinator] Chinese louseworts and bumblebees

[Peter Bernhardt]

When you open the attached file and scroll through the paper you will
understand why it needed so many co-authors. I was NOT involved in the
computer simulation part of this study. I never received more than a C in
college Physics but I did have past research experience with Chinese
louseworts (Pedicularis) working with Dr. H. Liang and Prof. Wang Hong at
the Kunming Institute of Botany several years ago. I joined the new team to
continue work with Prof. Wang Hong's lab but also to honor the support I
received for decades from the late, great Walter Macior (1926-2007). Walter
studied the pollination of American elephant nose lousewort species for
years and he was able to finish some field studies in China.

If you find this a little too complicated (I did) start with the
popular-science version Yuanqing and I wrote to release to the media
(attached).  It works like this, the success a bumblebee has buzzing pollen
out of the beak of an elephant nose, lousewort flower depends on whether
the bee can clamp its jaws on a part of the flower we call the Optimal
Biting Point and its body is long enough for the "tip of the elephant's
trunk" to spray pollen onto a discrete part on the bee's abdomen.
Remember, bumblebee colonies survive only one season in temperate zones and
workers change in size becoming larger over a season so as different
lousewort species bloom at different elevations over several months they
must be pollinated by bumblebees of specific lengths that are strong enough
to generate sufficient vibrations in their chest (flight) muscles to
release pollen from the elephant's trunk.

Peter Bernhardt
Research Assoc. The Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis, MO
C ell: 314-919-6566  .
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