ML139311
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Stephen Buchmann. Timecode In: 00:00:04. Timecode out: 01:00:00. Notes: Bees; Pollination. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. NPR/NGS RADIO EXPEDITIONS Bees Studio 3A 2-way -Steve Buchman and Alex Chadwick October 28, 1996 1:16 AC -...What do I actually know about bees...what do I actually know about pollination, and how does it work...what is pollination? What is going on there? 1:48 SB -basically, most of us in high school were taught about pollination, what the birds and the bees were doing. Why it was important for pollen grains, this little microscopic dust, to be transferred from flower to flower. But somehow, as we grew into adulthood we have forgotten those basic facts of life, that plants literally cannot get up and go on a date. They are totally dependent, quite literally and figuratively, rooted to one spot. SO they need these fuzzy go betweens, whether these are bees, bats, birds or butterflies to carry the pollen around from plant to plant, which is essential for producing the fruits and seeds that our very lives depend upon. 2:34 2:35 AC -This is actually plant reproduction -the sexual life of plants. SB -Exactly, um hum. AC -How does it work? How do the bees do it? And why do the bees do it? What is the bee getting out of this? 2:51 SB - Bees and other pollinators, but especially bees are attracted to the plants bc the plants are scented almost flashing neon signs or billboards. And bees are not in it to help out the plants. they are not the friendly pollinators thinking that well, gee I have to go around and pollinate 5 different kinds of plants today and set some seeds. I mean -far from it. Bees are simply out for very selfish motives trying to collect food. High energy food in the form of floral nectar which is usually 30 to 50% sugar, and then that fine microscopic dust -the pollen, which is very very rich in proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. So they are out to feed themselves and their progeny, their larvae which are usually back in a hive in the case of a honey bee, or below ground if you are a native solitary bee. But they are simply going from flower to flower to collect as rapidly and as effectively as they can -food. Again, the high energy food, nectar which is turned by them into honey and also the pollen. 4:08 4:10 AC -So, they are going after the nectar which they turn into honey, and as kind of an accidental byproduct of that they are flying along among these flowers, brushing the pollen from one up against another. What is going on with the plants here? What is happening in their... ? VG 4:28 - SB -Exactly. The bees are as if you imagine them as living flying paint brushes, and very very fuzzy and able to pick up this pollen, this dust like substance, and carry it from flower to flower so that the flowers have played for millions of years ¬for at least one hundred million years -the plants for at least one hundred million years have played this game. It's almost an arm's -or maybe a legs, bc the bees have 6 legs -constantly trying to outwit the next so that the flowers in kind of an anthropomorphic sense don't want the bees to get all of the pollen. they don't want to satiate them all with one flower. The more flowers they visit out on a trip, out from their hive, or out from their nest, the better it .is for the flowers. So the flowers are actually metering out little dollops of nectar. Little parcels of pollen so that the bees will have to visit hundreds or thousands of flowers on a given trip. So that is part of the game. They want to entice them but get them to visit per unit time. AC: Would it be correct to say that pollen is in human terms sperm? 5:52 SB -Yes, definitely. DNA containing. Yeah plant sperm basically, and the very fact -.... flowering plant reproduction 101, or the facts of life for ... (Notes truncated)
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- 6 May 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 6 May 2005 - Ben Brotman
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- 6 May 2005 - Ben Brotman