Pollination is fundamental for the sexual reproduction of flowering plants (angiosperms). It involves the transfer of pollen (which contains the male gametes/genetic material) from the anthers (male flower part) to the stigma (female part) of flowers. Transfer may occur in the same flower or between flowers of the same or different plants. Once the pollen reaches the stigma it can germinate, launching the subsequent process of fertilization, which ends with the development of seeds and fructification.
Many plants require a pollination “service”, meaning a vector that transfers pollen from one flower to another. In some cases, pollen is transported by wind (anemophily), more rarely by water (hydrophily), but for about 90% of known plant species, the vectors are animal pollinators (zoophily).
The pollination of flowers by animals implies a partnership between plants and pollinators, a partnership that determined their co-evolution. This is why the rapid diversification of angiosperms, since their appearance on Earth 135 million years ago, leading to their great current diversity (an estimated 300,000 species), largely depended on their co-evolution with pollinators.
