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Background and Aims: Buzz pollination involves explosive pollen release in response to vibration, usually by bees. The mechanism of pollen release is poorly understood, and it is not clear which component of vibration (acceleration, frequency, displacement or velocity) is critical; the role of buzz frequency has been particularly controversial. This study proposes a novel hypothesis that explosive pollen release results from vibration-induced triboelectric charging. If it does, pollen release is expected to depend on achievement of a critical threshold velocity., Methods: Eight sympatric buzz-pollinated species of Pedicularis that share bumblebee pollinator species were studied, giving a rare opportunity to compare sonication behaviour of a shared pollinator on different plant species., Key Results: Reconsidering previous experimental studies, it is argued that they establish the critical role of the velocity component of vibration in pollen release, and that when displacement is constrained by body size bees can achieve the critical velocity by adjusting frequency. It was shown that workers of Bombus friseanus assorted themselves among Pedicularis species by body size, and that bees adjusted their buzz/wingbeat frequency ratio, which is taken as an index of the velocity component, to a value that corresponds with the galea length and pollen grain volume of each species of Pedicularis., Conclusions: Sonication behaviour of B. friseanus differs among Pedicularis species, not only because worker bees assort themselves among plant species by body size, but also because bees of a given size adjust the buzz frequency to achieve a vibration velocity corresponding to the floral traits of each plant species. These findings, and the floral traits that characterize these and other buzz-pollinated species, are compatible with the hypothesis of vibration-induced triboelectric charging of pollen grains., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background and Aims: Spatial (herkogamy) and temporal (dichogamy) separation of pollen presentation and stigma receptivity have been interpreted as reducing interference between male and female functions in hermaphroditic flowers. However, spatial separation leads to a potential conflict: reduced pollination accuracy, where pollen may be placed in a location on the pollinator different from the point of stigma contact., Methods: To understand better how herkogamous flowers resolve this conflict, a study was made of a subalpine herb, Parnassia epunctulata, the nectariferous flowers of which exhibit sequential anther dehiscence (staggered pollen presentation) and stamen movements; usually one newly dehisced anther is positioned each day over the central gynoecium, while the older stamens bend away from the central position., Key Results: The open flowers were visited by a variety of pollinators, most of which were flies. Seed set was pollinator-dependent (bagged flowers set almost no seeds) and pollen-limited (manual pollination increased seed set over open pollination). Analyses of adaptive accuracy showed that coordinated stamen movements and style elongation (movement herkogamy) dramatically increased pollination accuracy. Specifically, dehiscing anthers and receptive stigmas were positioned accurately in the vertical and horizontal planes in relation to the opposite sexual structure and pollinator position. By contrast, the spatial correspondence between anthers and stigma was dramatically lower before the anthers dehisced and after stamens bent outwards, as well as before and after the period of stigmatic receptivity., Conclusions: It is shown for the first time that a combination of movement herkogamy and dichogamy can maintain high pollination accuracy in flowers with generalized pollination. Staggered pollen and stigma presentation with spatial correspondence can both reduce sexual interference and improve pollination accuracy.