Tree pollination needs male-only rot
By Susan Milius
From the region that gave us pollination by cockroaches and dung beetles, here’s another of Nature’s peculiarities: a plant that relies on a fungus as well as a pollinating insect.
In Malaysia, the pale fuzz of the Choanephora fungus attacks the male flowers dangling from the chempedak fruit tree. That fungus provides a food reward for the pollinating insects, reports a team of researchers based at Kyoto University in Japan.
“This is the first report on a pollination mutualism in which a fungus plays an indispensable role,” say Shoko Sakai and her colleagues in the March American Journal or Botany. “[W]e should be more aware of the roles fungi can play in pollination.”