You are on an expedition into a tropical rainforest. You notice a tall plant with large, long, conical purple flowers that produce nectar. When you ask your guide about the plant, she pulls out a large pink fruit from her bag and explains that it is from the plant with the purple flowers. After tasting the fruit, you decide to bring the plant back home and cultivate it. You suspect that the plants need a pollinator for reproduction. You place a beehive in the middle of the greenhouse. A few weeks later, no fruit is produced. What might be a reasonable hypothesis for why this method failed?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The tall plant with large, long, conical purple flowers suggests that the plant may be a species of Heliconia, which typically have flowers adapted for pollination by hummingbirds rather than bees. Therefore, it is possible that the bees cannot reach far enough into the flower to obtain pollen, which can lead to unsuccessful pollination and no fruit production.

You Are on an Expedition into a Tropical Rainforest