page_title: Leucospermum
section_title: Pollination
hierarchical_section_title: Leucospermum / Ecology / Pollination
caption_attribution_description: Orange breasted sunbird getting nectar from pincushion
context_page_description: Leucospermum is a genus of evergreen upright, sometimes creeping shrubs that is assigned to the Proteaceae, with currently forty-eight known species. Almost all species are easily recognised as Leucospermum because of the long protruding styles with a thickened pollen-presenter, which jointly give the flower head the appearance of a pincushion, its common name. Pincushions can be found in South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
  The shrubs mostly have a single stem at their base, but some species sprout from an underground rootstock, from which the plant can regrow after fire has killed the above ground biomass. In a larger group of species, specimens are killed by fire, and their survival depends on the seeds. In all species, seeds are collected by ants, which take them to their underground nests to feed on their ant breads, a seed dispersal strategy known as myrmecochory. This ensures that the seeds do not burn, so new plants can grow from them.
context_section_description: During flowering, the extended styles protrude far beyond the perianth tube. Initially, the tip of the style carries pollen at the thickened tip, that is called pollen-presenter. The pollen is brushed on the heads and bodies of the birds, mammals and large insects that try to reach the copious and thick nectar that fills the perianth tube. In older flower heads of Leucospermum most of the pollen will have been transferred to the bodies of earlier pollinators, and a small groove at the very tip of the style opens. In most Leucospermum species, plants are entirely infertile to their own pollen. Even a small amount of pollen of other specimens of the same species results in the development of the seed. The flowerheads are also visited by many small insects that are unlikely to pollinate Leucospermum, but the birds eat insects in addition to nectar. The birds' nesting season coincides with the flowering season of Leucospermum and both for egg-laying and growing chicks, a large quantity of proteine is needed, where nectar provides hardly any. The Cape sugarbird seems to be present in all stands of non-creeping Leucospermum species, but the malachite sunbird Nectarinia famosa, southern double-collared sunbird Cinnyris chalybeus and orange-breasted sunbird Anthobaphes violacea are locally also important pollinators. Red-winged starling Onychognathus morio and Cape weaver Ploceus capensis are occasional visitors that damage the perianth tube to extract the nectar, and are probably much less effective pollinators. Large monkey beetles, like Trichostetha fascicularis, T. capensis, T. albopicta, and Anisonyx ursus can for a time be feeding on Leucospermum nectar in large numbers, and do transport pollen on their long hairs. These are however only present during a few weeks each year, and likely less important pollinators than the birds. Several rodents may be responsible for the pollination of species that produce their flower heads at ground level. Hairy-footed gerbils Gerbillurus paeba, and striped field mice Rhabdomys pumilio were observed to visit the flowers of L. arenarium, and both carried its pollen on forehead and breast. L. arenarium nectar is thick and is present at the tips of the perianth lobes. Here, mice can lick it off without having to damage the flowers. The nectar is produced by the scales subtending the ovary as in other Leucospermum species, but is transported by capillary ducts to the tips of the perianth.
caption: Orange-breasted sunbird
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