Caffeine gives bees a buzz
11th July 2013, WAMC Northeast Public Radio
The world around us remains green because plants produce toxic chemicals as defences to prevent animals from eating them. Plant toxins have been used by people throughout our history – we use them as medicines, drugs - we make tea or coffee to extract them, we add them as flavourings to spice up our foods.
Pollinators have coevolved with plants over millions of years, providing a sure means of sexual reproduction for plants while being ‘paid’ by plants to provide this service with food in the form of floral nectar and pollen. The quality of this payment – how rich the nectar is and what nutrients it provides – is what matters most to pollinators. They learn the floral scents and colours associated with flowers that have good food rewards and seek out flowers with the same traits.
