Self-pollination instead of bumblebees: scientists have studied how field violets have evolved over 20 years

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Due to the decrease in the number of pollinators, field violets began to form flowers with a lower nectar content and more often resort to self-pollination.

In a study published in the journal New Phyologist, scientists note that such evolution of flowers took place rapidly – they needed only 20 years to adapt to new conditions, writes The New York Times.

To prove his hypothesis, Pierre-Olivier Cheptou, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Montpellier in France who led the study, requested seed samples of field violets (Viola arvensis) collected in the 1990s and early 2000s from France’s National Botanical Conservatoire. years

In laboratory conditions, they grew flowers from old and new seeds. The study showed that among the samples of 2022, the frequency of self-pollination occurred 27% more often than among samples of the 1990s.

Photo: igorartmd/Depositphotos

Scientists also paid attention to how the anatomy of the plant changed: in 20 years, their flowers decreased by 10% and began to produce 20% less nectar. In this regard, the researchers assumed that field violets became less attractive to bumblebees that used to pollinate them.

To test this hypothesis, they placed bumble bee hives inside enclosures with old and new field violets. Scientists recorded that old plants were “visited” by insects more often than new ones.

At the same time, researchers say that field violets, like other flowers, have reduced the amount of nectar due to the decline in bumblebee populations.

Pollinators and flowers can be locked in a downward spiral: less nectar will lead to further declines in insect populations, and sexual reproduction will become less and less beneficial to plants.

In the long term, genetic limitations of self-pollination may put these plants at risk of extinction.

Read also: Some female frogs fake death to avoid sex – scientists

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