Insect Pollination Is Critical for Rare Laramie Chickensage Species in Wyoming

The Laramie chickensage is unique among the hundreds of sagebrush species, most of which are pollinated largely by the wind.

Critical Pollination

(Photo : Paulina H./Unsplash)

According to recent research done by a University of Wyoming doctoral student, a rare type of sagebrush found only in southeast Wyoming survives solely through pollination by bees, as per ScienceDaily.

According to the research published in the Nordic Journal of Botany, this distinguishes the Laramie chickensage from the hundreds of species of sagebrush, the majority of which are pollinated predominantly by the wind.

The study was directed by Madison Crawford, a recent UW master's degree holder from Newcastle.

She also has a bachelor's degree in botany from the University of Wyoming, where she was an undergraduate Wyoming Research Scholar in 2017-19.

The paper's co-authors are Lusha Tronstad, lead invertebrate zoologist, and Joy Handley, an assistant research scientist with the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database at the University of Wyoming.

The Laramie chickensage is exclusively found in the Laramie Range foothills, Shirley Basin, and Shirley Mountains of southeast Wyoming.

The plant, which is listed as a sensitive species by the Bureau of Land Management, which financed this study, has huge, brilliant yellow flowerheads, unlike the great majority of sagebrush types.

The scientists hypothesized that the spectacular flowerheads may attract insect pollinators, and the investigation proved them correct.

While the Laramie chickensage is largely wind-pollinated, insect pollination produced 61 percent of the viable seeds produced by the plants in the research.

Despite optimal climatic circumstances for wind pollination, the researchers believe that pollen delivered by insects is required to yield the most seeds.

The experimental study employed mesh bags to restrict insect pollination and fabric bags to inhibit both insect and wind pollination on eight patches of Laramie chickensage throughout the region. In each location, seeds were counted and weighed.

In those areas, the scientists also caught and identified a type of bee before collecting pollen from the insects.

The previous study on a wide variety of plants has revealed that pollination by insects and other animals is more common than wind pollination.

Plants exhibit both pollination methods as they switch from animal to wind pollination to cope with changing conditions.

According to the researchers, "we noticed that (Laramie chickensage) displays greater animal pollination than wind pollination, which may signal that this plant is in a transitional era and is adjusting to a changing ecosystem."

They advocate for similar studies to assist influence management decisions for other types of rare plants.

They added, "We proved that believing a plant is pollinated in the same way as other members of the species might be deceptive, and we urge people to explore pollination of uncommon and endemic plants."

This requirement is made even more pressing by the widespread loss of pollinating insects.

What is the significance of pollination?

Pollination is required for nearly all of the world's seed plants. This is true for both cone-bearing plants like pine trees and the more colorful and recognizable floral species, as per USDA.

Pollen, which seems to be inconsequential yellow dust, contains a plant's male sex cells and is an important link in the reproductive cycle.

Pollination is more than simply an interesting natural history topic. It serves an important ecological survival role.

The human race and all terrestrial ecosystems would perish if pollinators were not present.

Almost 80% of the 1,400 crop plants farmed throughout the world, i.e. those that provide all of our food and plant-based industrial goods, require animal pollination.

Flowering plants generate breathing oxygen by using the carbon dioxide generated by plants and animals during respiration.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been quickly rising over the last century, owing to the growing use of fossil fuels and the destruction of essential forests, the "earth's lungs."

Pollinators are critical to the reproduction of wild plants in our fragmented global world.

Even if soil, air, nutrition, and other life-sustaining factors were accessible, current plant populations would dwindle without them.

Flowering plants cleanse water and prevent erosion by having roots that hold the soil in place and foliage that absorbs the impact of rain as it falls to the ground.

Plants rely on pollinators to help them breed, and the water cycle relies on plants to return moisture to the atmosphere.