prise open one of these tepals, clamber into the flower with their
legs around the style, and receive pollen on the dorsal surface of
their thorax from one of the primary anthers. When entering
another flower, this pollen is deposited on the glandular hood of
the inner tepal being prised open. The pollen germinates and
penetrates the style only when the flower wilts and the tepal hoods
are appressed against the stigma. Megachilid (leafcutter) bees are
apparently the most important pollinators of Albuca species; this
was confirmed by experiments involving virgin flowers in which
we found that megachilids deposited and removed more pollen
grains per visit than did honeybees. We also established that
pollen transfer in Albuca populations is generally more efficient
than in plants with conventional stigmatic pollen receipt. The
floral conservatism in the genus Albuca apparently reflects the
dedicated function of the inner tepals for mechanically filtering
flower visitors, protecting the primary anthers from pollencollecting
insects, and transferring pollen to the stigma.