University of Vienna researchers found that scoop-shaped pore modifications on poricidal flowers alter how pollen streams travel during mechanical vibrations, according to a study published by Nature Communications. Poricidal flowers, which represent approximately 10% of angiosperms, release pollen exclusively through narrow apertures when subjected to mechanical perturbations.
The research team—Benjamin S. Lazarus, Fabian Polz, and Agnes S. Dellinger from the university's Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research—examined pore structures across 523 species spanning six poricidal plant families. Their morphological survey established that floral pores either carry distinct scoop-shaped modifications or lack them entirely.
Artificial pollen release experiments demonstrated clear functional differences between the two physical designs. Scoop-bearing species produced narrower, faster-moving streams of pollen than non-scoop-bearing species. Testing on a selected scoop-bearing species showed that pore output also responds directly to vibrational frequencies: low-frequency vibrations expelled larger quantities of pollen in a more dispersed cloud, while high-frequency vibrations released tighter streams.
Differences in pore shape may critically govern the accuracy of pollen placement on pollinators, establishing pore architecture as a functional trait in flowers that rely on the aerosolization of pollen grains.
The study received financial support from the Austrian Science Fund and an ERC Starting grant under project MountBuzz. Botanical sampling involved field collections in Colombia along with living plant material from the Jardín Botánico de Bogotá José Celestino Mutis, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and the New York Botanical Garden.
