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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Sunflower Improvement Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #426779
Research Project: Sunflower Yield, Crop Quality, and Interactions with Biotic and Abiotic Stressors

Location: Sunflower Improvement Research

Title: Wild bee visitation to sunflower inbred lines appears unaffected by disparate nectar phenotypes

Author
item Prasifka, Jarrad
item FUGATE, KAREN - Retired ARS Employee
item Hulke, Brent

Submitted to: National Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/6/2025
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A population of sunflower inbred lines was developed to create groups of lines with ‘nectar phenotypes’ that were either high sucrose and low volume or low sucrose and high volume. Floret depth, a measure of the accessibility of nectar to bees, did not differ between the groups of lines. In two years of observations in North Dakota, visits to these lines varied approximately three-fold, but no significant effect of nectar phenotype was detected, which contradicts expectations and some prior research. However, the effects of nectar traits (volume or concentration) may differ over disparate environments, especially under low humidity. This result and future experiments are important to both sunflower breeders (trying to create sunflower inbreds and hybrids attractive to pollinators) and growers (who rely on pollinators to support consistent, high yields).