A <scp>model and lexicon for pollen fate</scp>

Abstract

As pollination biology undergoes unprecedented growth as a discipline, confusion in the use of terms has become increasingly common. The need for a flexible yet unambiguous terminology has become urgent. As an example we discuss how the term “pollination efficiency” is used differently by 18 studies, and “pollinator effectiveness” by seven others. Here we present flowcharts of two general models of pollination systems (biotic and abiotic) that trace all the events from pollen production to development of seed or fruit, and we develop a lexicon for the quantities of pollen, processes of transfers (to a vector, to a stigma), and ratios of quantities that are of interest in studies of pollination and mating systems. An appendix includes a glossary of the definitions we suggest.