Learn About Pollination
Honeybees are the world’s most efficient pollinators.
Pollination is important for a strong and healthy ecosystem. It is the process by which plants reproduce. It involves transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This leads to fertilisation and the production of seeds which in turn, grow fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
Pollination is essential for plant reproduction. Many plants cannot pollinate themselves and rely on bees and other insects to transport pollen for fertilisation. Honeybees do not pollinate deliberately. Pollination is a byproduct caused when bees collect nectar from plants and flowers. Without pollination, our food supply would look very different!
Pollination can occur either through ‘self’ or ‘cross’ pollination. The majority of flowering food crops (such as apples, almonds, avocados and blueberries) require cross-pollination to ensure adequate genetic variations. Cross-pollination usually requires the help of a pollinator, like a honeybee.
There are some crops, such as carrots, broccoli and corn, capable of self-pollination (wind assisted) and do not require the transfer of pollen between individual plants to grow. However, the production of seeds for next season’s crop requires the plant to ‘go to seed’ and bees to pollinate the flowers for reproduction purposes.
The facts about bee pollination
How do bees pollinate?
Honeybees are the most efficient pollinators. For the last three weeks of their lives, the honey bee spends its time foraging for pollen and nectar, visiting up to 10,000 flowers a day.
The honey bee lands on the flower and uses its proboscis to suck up the nectar from the nectaries. While this is occurring, pollen on the anthers of the flower sticks to the hairs all over the bee’s body. The bee moves on to another flower to repeat the process of gathering nectar and pollen. As the bee feeds on the nectar of the second flower, the pollen from the first flower rubs onto the stigma. Part of the pollen travels down the style and into the ovaries of the second flower.
This flower is now fertilised and ready to produce fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds to become new plants!
Beekeepers & Pollination
Beekeepers keep bees for vital pollination services across Australia’s agricultural food sector. The value of pollination services provided by Australian honeybees is $14.2 billion*.
By buying Australian honey you are making an investment in pollination and fresh food; one that will keep the cost of our fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds affordable into the future. This will ultimately prevent the need for mass importation of the delicious foods that Australia currently grows and enjoys.
*The Economic Valuation of Australian Managed and Wild Honey Bee Pollinators in 2014 – 2015, John M Karasiński, September 2018.