What Pollinates Fuchsia Excorticata?

Pollinators

• In its geographically isolated homeland of New Zealand, tree fuchsia evolved being pollinated by nectar-eating birds. Native honeyeaters, especially bellbirds and tui, visit the pendent blossoms and use their beaks and tongues to penetrate the floral tubes for nectar. Silvereyes also visit blossoms to eat nectar. As these birds rest on tree branches and prod their faces and tongues into blossoms, pollen from the stamens is shaken or wiped across the female flower organ on a long, pistil neck.

Pollination Insight

• In England where no New Zealand bird fauna exist insects, such as bees, visit tree fuchsia blossoms to gather nectar, according to the Plants for a Future Database. Most flowers in a tree fuchsia are bisexual and the visit of bird or bee to the blossom transfers pollen to the female stigma organ. Tree fuchsia is self-compatible and can partially self-pollinate, according to research presented in the New Zealand Journal of Botany in 2008. Even if neither bird nor insect visits the flowering tree, shed pollen can blow or fall onto an adjacent stigma, resulting in pollination and subsequent production of seeded fruits.

Flower Features

• Tree fuchsia flowers' structure invites visits by flying pollinators with long tongues. The pendent flowers hang downward, making it difficult for large flying insects, such as butterflies or moths, to land on it. The pollen-carrying stamens and female pistil jet out from the blossom's core and are brushed against as the bird or small flying insects burrows into the blossom's base for nectar. Tree fuchsia flowers change color as they age and persist on the branches. When first opening, rich in nectar and receptive for pollination, the blossom is bluish green with dark-purple markings. As the nectar levels drop and the optimal pollination window closes, the flower becomes markedly more pink to red.

Bird Relationships

• In New Zealand, both indigenous and exotic birds play a central role in the tree fuchsia's reproduction. Not only are honeyeaters central to flower pollination, the subsequent small fruits are readily eaten by birds. Blackbirds, silvereyes, bellbirds, kereru and starlings all eat the fruits and scatter the seeds in their droppings. In the Southern parts of the United States where the winter climate is mild, tree fuchsia grows as a small, flowering shrub. As in the case of other species of garden fuchsia, various hummingbirds visit the tree fuchsia's flowers and play a role in pollination.