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- Author or Editor: Willard Scott Robinson x
Abstract
The flower structure of the ‘Delicious’ apple (Malus domestica Borkh) differs from that of most apple cultivars by having gaps at the base of stamens. Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) learn to collect nectar through these gaps and avoid the flowers’ sexual parts; consequently, visits to ‘Delicious’ are less than half as effective in pollination as are visits to other cultivars.
Abstract
‘Delicious’ apple flowers (Malus domestica Borkh.) set very few fruit after receiving single visits from honey bees (Apis meilifera L.) that foraged for nectar while standing on the flower petals. Yield from these flowers was similar to the yield from unpollinated blossoms. Much higher sets were observed in blossoms that were hand-pollinated, and on flowers visited only once by pollen-foraging or nectar-foraging bees that worked from on top of the stamens. Final yields from the latter 3 treatments were very similar, though generally lower than would be commercially desirable.