Mutualistic Symbiosis Between Flowers

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Good afternoon Lakshmi friends... I hope you are all well and always healthy.

Symbiosis is a form of interaction of one living creature with another. Living creatures in this world are dependent on each other, including animals. Every animal needs the help of other animals.

One of these interactions is between the bee beetle (Bombus verticalis) and sunflowers. The interaction that occurs is symbiotic mutualism, namely the relationship between two living creatures that is mutually beneficial.

In this relationship, bees are not the ones who only benefit from the nectar obtained from flowers, but flowers also benefit, namely bees can help the flower's pollination process.

In the petals of flowers which are pollinated by insects (such as bees and butterflies), there is nectar or flower essence in the flower. This nectar is very sweet and rich in sugar. This nectar is a mixture of various sugar substances such as glucose, fructose and sucrose.

Nectar is used to attract insects that will come to the flower. When insects drink the nectar in flowers, the pollen sticks to the insect's body. This pollen will then be carried to other flowers and fall onto the pistil of that flower.

Thus, insects such as bees will help pollinate the flowers. Plants can pollinate at greater distances, because they are assisted by these insects. This creates a mutually beneficial relationship, where bees get food from flower nectar, while flowers are helped to be pollinated by the activity of bee birds.

In plants whose pollination is assisted by wind, the flowers are simpler and do not have nectar. On the other hand, these flowers have an open structure and pollen in large quantities so that the wind can spread it easily. Bees have unique ultraviolet vision to see flower patterns that cannot be seen with the human eye.

Bees have coarse hairs to collect large baskets of pollen. Bees also have long tongues specifically for sucking nectar, so that mutual symbiosis occurs. So, both of them benefit from this relationship.

That's a glimpse of the mutualistic symbiosis between bees and flowers, thank you for stopping by here.

Regards

@bundasity