Guest Speaker – Mark Brundrett – Amazing Pollination Complexity of Southwest Western Australian Flowers

Mark is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia and a Research Associate of the West Australian Herbarium. Recent research has focused on orchid pollination and conservation, ecosystem restoration and impacts of fire on orchids. He also studies biodiversity patterns in Western Australia, pollination ecology, mycorrhizal associations, weeds and orchid taxonomy. He has published a field guide to local orchids.

Amazing Pollination Complexity of Southwest Western Australian Flowers

A recent paper in Australian Journal of Botany I wrote with Greg Keighery and Phil Ladd summarises knowledge on pollination of southwest Australian plants (open access in Australian Journal of Botany). By combining information on flower shapes, colours and animal visitors, we assigned 9000 plants in the southwest biodiversity hotspot to pollination categories (syndromes). Highly specialized pollination, linked to exceptionally complex and beautiful flowers, is exceptionally common here, especially for bird, bee or deceptive orchid syndromes. This complexity is globally unique and most extreme in very large and important families such as the peas, myrtles, proteas, heaths and orchids. This resulted from many evolutionary transitions, especially from general insects to bees, birds or the wind, due to strong selective pressures in the region. However, extreme pollination specialisation can increase extinction risks because of reliance on specific animals. This has major consequences for rare flora management and ecosystem restoration, due to increasing habitat degradation, fire and climate change in Western Australia and beyond.