Tafelerklärungen

The dogma that anemophily in the humid tropics is rare or even absent is challenged. Long pollen rain shadows, leptokurtic pollen distribution patterns, and electrostatic attractions between pollen and stigma may contribute to successful abiotic pollination among plants whose mechanisms bridge a continuum between the extremes of anemophily and zoophily. Representatives of 21 families of woody, neotropical plants are shown to possess some form of abiotic pollination or pollen dispersal, suggesting a greater role of anemophily in tropical reproductive biology and allergic responses than previously assumed.