Plants, people, and pollinators: insights from this biotic interaction in Latin America

AVILA R.S.; BASUALDO M.; ARBULO N.; CANO-MEDINA L.; CESPEDES A.; CORREA BENITEZ A.; GALETTO L.; MUÑOZ A.; NATES-PARRA G.; SÁEZ AGUSTIN; SALVARREY S.; SILVA-NETO C.; QUISE-DELGADO Y.

Congreso; Apimondia; 2023

Different aspects of human culture are associated with plants, which has been used as food and medicine. Many of these plants species need pollinators visitation for seeds or fruit development. We evaluated the pollinators, pollination, and reproduction of plant species used by Latin-American people through a systematic review of literature. We found that 87 plant species belonging to 30 families were used by native people. A narrow pollination niche performed by a single pollinator functional group was prevalent in the plants, and this specialized group were pollinated by bees. Our results indicated that although there are diversified pollination systems in the plant species most used by native Latin-American people, most of these were pollinated by bees, and thus active policies should be applied to protect pollinators.