Synergistic interactions between an exotic honeybee and an exotic weed: pollination of Lantana camara in Australia

By Dave Goulson, Lara C. Derwent. 2004

84 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Lantana camara, a woody shrub originating in south and central America, is among the most widespread and troublesome exotic weeds of the old-world tropics. It invades pasture, crops and native ecosystems, causing substantial economic losses and environmental degradation. In Australia alone, L. camara is currently estimated to cover c. 40 000 km2. In glasshouse studies we demonstrate that L. camara requires cross-pollination to set fruit, and that honeybee visits result in effective pollination. Field studies carried out in Queensland, Australia, suggest that fruit set is limited by pollinator abundance, and that the main pollinator of L. camara throughout a substantial portion of its Australian range appears to be the honeybee, Apis mellifera. Seed set was strongly correlated with honeybee abundance, and at many sites, particularly in southern Queensland, honeybees were the only recorded flower visitors. Of 63 sites that were visited, seed set was highest at five sites where only honeybees were present. Hives are frequently stationed within and adjacent to areas such as National Parks that are threatened by this noxious weed. Management of honeybee populations may provide a powerful tool for cost-effective control of L. camara that has previously been overlooked. We suggest that there are probably many other weeds, both in Australia and elsewhere, that benefit from honeybee pollination.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a23a3938b606ed15602a80d8e896ecd3a47b8c94

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Evidence for competition between honeybees and bumblebees; effects on bumblebee worker size (2009, background): “However, there is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that non-native bee species such as the honeybee can have negative impacts on native pollinators and may facilitate the spread of non-native weeds through pollination (Goulson 2003a; Goulson and Derwent 2004).”
Lantana invasion: An overview (2005, background): “Furthermore, Goulson and Derwent (2004) argued that the cost-effective control of Lantana could be achieved by managing honeybees.”
Effects of biological invasions on forest carbon sequestration (2010, background): “…should occur when the dominant plant species (i.e. those having highest basal area, root biomass, leaf area, or litter production) are affected, thus influencing NPP and litter inputs in the short-term, and successional pathways in the long-term (Lovett et al., 2006a; Sullivan et al., 2007).”
Direct interactions between invasive plants and native pollinators: evidence, impacts and approaches (2017, background): “Again, generalist bees, such as Apis and Bombus spp., introduced for crop pollination purposes, provide good examples of this: Lupinus aboreus is pollinated by introduced bees (A. mellifera and B. terrestris) in Australia (Stout, Kells & Goulson 2002), which do not occur in the species’ native range”