Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
Plant and Pollinator Adaptations
Classroom Activity: 7-8
Time: Two 45-60 minute class periods
Overview:
In this activity, students explore floral adaptations that attract pollinators and the
characteristics of pollinator vectors.
Integration with Project BudBurst
Students participating in Project BudBurst study the timing of leafing, flowering, and
fruiting of a selected plant. Timing of these events can be very important to a plant’s
survival and/or reproductive success – for example, flowering too early or too late may
cause a mismatch in timing between the plant and its pollinators resulting in little or no
pollination. As students make observations of their plant, particularly the timing of
flowering, teachers may use the Plant and Pollinator Adaptations lesson to introduce the
process of pollination. The lesson also introduces variation in pollinators, and that
competition among plants for pollinators and competition among pollinators for food
sources has resulted in some specialized relationships between pollinators and plants. As
a natural extension to the lesson, students may explore which pollinator(s) are important
to their study plant and when these pollinators are typically present.
NOTE: The Pea Patch Pollination Game lesson works well after this lesson, giving
students the opportunity to explore how pollinator preference may result in changes in
plant populations over time.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
 Describe the parts of a flower involved in pollination and how pollination works.
 Identify characteristics of flowers pollinated by bees or butterflies.
 Describe how adaptations in pollinators and flowers are advantageous to each.
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A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
Materials:
 Transparency of Figure 1a - General design of a flower
 Transparency of Figure 2 - Honeybee photo and diagram of mouthparts
 Transparency of Figure 3 - Butterfly photo and diagram of mouthparts
 Transparency of Table – Adaptations of Pollinator Vectors and Flowering Plants
 Photocopies of the Plant and Pollinator Adaptations Data Collection Sheet
 (one per student)
 Field Guides of wildflowers (one per group of students)
 Colored paper
 Pipe cleaners
 Empty plastic beverage bottles, large and small
 Colored pens
 Scissors
 Tape
 Thumb tacks
 Paper clips
Education Standards: Available at:
http://budburst.org/educators/plantpollinatoradapt_sg.php
Activity – Part 1 (Discussion)
1) Talk to the students about flowers and why plants have flowers. Have them think
about sexual reproduction and how important the resulting genetic variation is to
natural selection. Since plants can’t move around like animals can, ask students to
think about how plants are able to reproduce sexually. Hint: they need a way to get
their pollen from one plant to another.
2) Ask students what they know about the following pollinators: insects (bees, flies,
butterflies, moths, and beetles), birds (hummingbirds in the U.S.), bats, and wind.
Leaving wind aside, discuss with the students how plants attract pollinators.
3) Use a transparency of Figure 1a to explain pollen transfer. Introduce the idea of a
plant producing nectar to attract pollinators. Use Figure 1b as a guide to draw in the
common location of nectaries. Have the students discuss where the nectaries sit in
relation to the stigma.
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A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
5) For the purpose of this activity, focus the students on two of the major pollinators:
bees and butterflies. Use a transparency of Figure 2 to explain that bees are
extremely important pollen vectors. They are also economically important for both
honey production and many of our fruit crops. Bees use nectar to make honey to feed
the hive and they also eat the pollen of flowers. Explain to the students that bees have
a relatively short labium.
6) Use a transparency of Figure 3 to have students point out the differences between the
mouthparts of bees and butterflies. Note how long the proboscis (galea) is on a
butterfly. What does that enable the butterfly to do that bees can’t do?
7) Now explain that flowers compete for pollinators, and pollinators compete for the food
produced by flowers. As a result, both have co-evolved suites of adaptations for
certain flower characteristics and certain pollinator characteristics. Use the
Adaptations of Pollinator Vectors and Flowering Plants Table to point out the
adaptations of these two pollinators and of the flowers typically pollinated by these two
groups.
Activity – Part 2 (Investigation)
1) Explain to the students that they will be taking on the characteristics of the pollinators
as they try to find food. Divide the class into small groups and assign each group to be
a bee or butterfly pollinator. Provide wildflower field guides to each group, and have
the students find as many different species of flower for their pollinator (bee or
butterfly).
2) Have the students sketch each flower, record the flower name, colors, phenophase
(flowering time), and habitat on the Plant and Pollinator Adaptations Data Collection
Sheet. They must be able to justify why they think their pollinator would be able to
pollinate this plant.
3) In the last 5-10 minutes of the class period, find out how many plants each group was
able to describe and how confident they are that their pollinator might actually be a
vector for that plant’s pollen. Collect the data collection sheets.
4) Explain to the students that during the next class session each group will be
challenged with building a flower. These flowers will be based on what they learned
about their pollinators and the flowers they researched, but the scale will be much
larger – the nectaries will be plastic soda bottles. They should work as a group; they
will need to bring or request specific materials they would like to use other than the
general materials already provided (colored paper, pipe cleaners, pens, etc.).
budburst.org
A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
Activity – Part 3 (Summary)
1) Give the groups 15-20 minutes to build an ideal flower (complete with stamen and
pistils) for a giant-sized version of their pollinator. While they build their flowers, count
the number of appropriately sized/shaped plants that would be available to the
pollinator based on what the students recorded on the data collection sheets.
2) Have the groups present their flowers and share the justification for the characteristics
they chose to include.
3) After their presentations, the teacher plays the role of “cheater” and illustrates how
animals rob flowers of nectar without doing their jobs, or how other animal vectors (like
hummingbirds or moths) might “outcompete” the group’s pollinator and get the nectar
rewards first. Reward the groups that survived and may have designed a flower that
was “cheat-proof.”
Suggested Extension Activity
 Have students explore the schoolyard for different flower types, using a field guide to
identify the flowers. Based on floral characteristics, have students predict the type of
pollinator that would be attracted to the flower. They can use the Adaptations of
Pollinator Vectors and Flowering Plants table for more information.
 Students could also identify the type of pollinator(s) that would be attracted to the
flower of their Project BudBurst study plant, and why. Students could also examine the
timing of their study plant’s flowering phase and whether their predicted pollinators are
available at that time. For plants pollinated by wind, students could describe how wind
pollination works.
Background Information
Sexual reproduction is vital to genetic diversity in plants, and the flower is the main
apparatus for this important function. Many flowering plants rely on animals for crosspollination. These animals include insects, birds, and mammals such as:
 Insect pollinators: bees, butterflies, wasps, flies, beetles, and moths
 Bird pollinators: hummingbirds, honey creepers (Hawaii), sunbirds (Africa/Asia), and
honeyeaters (Australasia)
 Mammals: bats
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A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
Animals seek out flowers for food, consuming nectar and pollen. In the course of their
travels, these animals serve as vectors to disperse pollen, cross-pollinating plants and
ensuring reproduction. Plants benefit because insects, birds, and bats may fly long
distances between widely separated plants.
But plants have to be attractive to pollinators. In fact, to bring about pollination, these
pollinators must be attracted to the same species repeatedly. Attraction and competition
among plants for pollinators and competition among pollinators for food sources has lead
to specialized relationships between plants and the animals that are their pollinators. The
interactions between the two different groups results in the co-evolution of characteristics
of both plant and pollinator. Indeed, plants have developed elaborate methods to attract
animal pollinators, and specialized body parts and behaviors that aid plant pollination are
common in animals. Natural selection favored those flowering plants that were most
attractive to pollinators and those pollinators were best able to get floral rewards. The
result has been mobility in plant genes that rivals the mobility in animals.
Here are some clever co-evolutionary quirks:
 Nectar of Queen Anne’s lace flowers is right at the base of its tiny flowers, where
pollinators with short proboscises such as honeybees, ants, wasps, flies, and beetles
can reach it when they crawl on the flower.
 The long, curving columbine flower complements the long tongue of bees, butterflies,
and hummingbirds. By concealing the nectar deep within its trumpet-like blossoms,
the columbine prevents animals who are not its pollination partners from accessing the
nectar.
 Petals may serve as landing platforms for visiting insects, and some function in the
pollen transfer. For example, when a bee lands on the lower petal of the snapdragon,
its weight causes the stamen to swing down and dust the bee with pollen.
 Petals of many plant species have lines or other marks that guide the pollinator to the
nectar. These markings may not be visible to the human eye.
 Hummingbirds are usually attracted to red flowers. As it turns out, red flowers are
typically loaded with especially rich nectar, instant energy for the fast-moving
hummingbirds.
Once an animal is attracted to a flower, it crawls around the blossom to find the nectar. In
the process, the pollinator rubs against the pollen, which may become attached to
different parts of the pollinator’s body. The pollinator leaves and visits other blossoms.
Stigma are strategically located on flowers of the same species, and the unsuspecting
pollinator rubs up against the stigma, transferring the pollen grains from its body. The
budburst.org
A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
pollen grain grows a tiny pollen tube down the style and into an egg-filled ovary.
Eventually, the pollen and the egg form a seed.
Student Assessment Suggestions:
Teachers may use student group presentations of ideal flowers, and the Plant and
Pollinator Adaptations Data Collection Sheets to assess understanding.
Source: Adapted from Plant and Pollinator Adaptations, developed by Alison Perkins and
ECOS (Ecologists Educators & Schools: Partners in GK-12 Education), The University of
Montana.
This teacher resource was made possible, in part, by support from the National
Geographic Education Foundation.
budburst.org
A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
Figure 1a: The general design of a flower
Figure 1b: Common locations of nectaries on the flower. Adapted from Plant and animals: Partners in
pollination. Smithsonian in your classroom. November/December 1997.
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A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
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A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
Adaptations of Pollinator Vectors and Flowering Plants
Vector
bees
butterflies
beetles, flies
Characteristics of Vector
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Often blue or yellow, with landing
platform
Often have markings that act as nectar
guides, sometimes in UV spectrum
Reduced numbers of floral parts
Often irregular in shape
May have deep tube or spur for nectar
•
•
Active in day
Have long, thin proboscis for nectar
acquisition
Can see red
Alight on blossoms
•
•
•
•
•
Open in day, emit some odor in day
Landing platform
Long corolla tube, narrow
May be blue, purple, red, yellow
May have nectar guide
•
•
Good sense of smell
Some lay eggs in rotting flesh
•
Dull colors, dark red, strong, spicy odor,
or odor of rotting flesh, flat shape
May have light window (flies)
•
•
Good sense of vision, smell
Often have body hairs
Can perceive depth, “count” petals
Do not see true red – see UV
Characteristics of Flower
•
•
hummingbirds
•
•
•
•
Vision much like human – see red
Long bill and tongue, large body
Little sense of smell
Intelligent – remember and return to
flowers with abundant reward
Active in day
Approach flower and hover
•
•
•
•
Most active at night
Strong sense of smell
Have long proboscis for nectar
acquisition
•
•
•
•
Abiotic
•
•
•
moths (and bats in
some areas)
wind
•
•
•
•
Red, large flowers with deep nectar tube
and abundant nectar
Little or no fragrance
Open in day
No landing platform
No nectar guide
Open at dusk or night, emit sweet odor at
night
Often dull or white
Long corolla, no landing platform
Inconspicuous, green or dull in color,
petals reduced or absent, abundant and
in canopy
From: Parrish, Judy. 2004. Pollination ecology: Field studies of insect visitation and pollen transfer
rates. Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology: Volume 2, August
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A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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Plant and Pollinator Adaptations: Grades 7-8
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A Project BudBurst Educational Activity
http://budburst.org/educators/pdf/PBB_plantandpollinatoradapt.pdf
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