Editing Buzz pollination (section)

== Evolutionary origins ==
The earliest evidence of ancestors of plants that use this mode of [[pollination]] in the fossil record has been dated to the [[Cretaceous]] period.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal|date=1992|title=Buzz pollination–older and more widespread than we think?|journal=Journal of Tropical Ecology|volume=8|issue=1|pages=115–120|last1=Proença|first1=C. P.|doi=10.1017/s0266467400006192|doi-broken-date=2024-11-03 |s2cid=85110938 }}</ref> Also, some extant flora such as members of the family [[Myrtaceae]] show a spectrum of anther shapes including poricidal [[anthers]] and are thought to resemble some morphological aspects of ancestral buzz pollinated flowers.<ref name=":2" /> As these plants have evolved complex floral structures, [[pollinator]]s have [[Coevolution|coevolved]] with these plants.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last1=Harder|first1=Lawrence D.|last2=Thomson|first2=James D.|date=1989-01-01|title=Evolutionary Options for Maximizing Pollen Dispersal of Animal-Pollinated Plants|jstor=2462124|journal=The American Naturalist|volume=133|issue=3|pages=323–344|doi=10.1086/284922|bibcode=1989ANat..133..323H |s2cid=83993766}}</ref>

Although pollination results from the bees visiting these flowers, this is not the primary reason they visit plants with poricidal anthers. Pollen contains a substantial amount of protein compared to [[nectar]], the sugary liquid the majority of plants produce as a reward for their animal pollinators.<ref name=":32"/> Bees eat pollen as well as make a paste with it to feed their [[larva]]e. The pollen paste is then sealed into the nest to create a reserve for the young bees.<ref name=":32"/> Bees rely on this resource for food; therefore they are also dependent on flowers that produce substantial amounts of accessible pollen, including flowers with poricidal anthers. Bees from ''[[Bombus]]'' and ''[[Xylocopa]]'' are thought to pollinate these flowers because their [[Adaptive behavior (ecology)|adaptive behavior]] allows them to easily extract pollen that is less available to other insects.<ref name=":4" /> Since bees have a source of plentiful pollen that they do not have to compete with other insects for, they are more likely to visit these flowers. This then allows the flowers to be more successful reproductively because the plants maximize their pollen dispersal with each bee visit, and less pollen is lost.<ref name=":4" /> The relationship between buzz pollinated plants and bees benefits both groups and could be why poricidal anthers have been successful evolutionarily.<ref name=":4" /> Pollinator and flower relationships have been observed in ''[[Orphium frutescens]]'', a small shrub that has poricidal anthers. Bees visited these plants outside of the University of Cape Town and continued to visit the plants even when all of the pollen had been extracted. Although the bees did not know the ''O. frutescens'' would benefit from these multiple visits as the plants continue to produce pollen during the flowering season.