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Published in:

18-04-2016

Food in a row: urban trees offer valuable floral resources to pollinating insects

Authors: Laurent Somme, Laura Moquet, Muriel Quinet, Maryse Vanderplanck, Denis Michez, Georges Lognay, Anne-Laure Jacquemart

Published in: Urban Ecosystems | Issue 3/2016

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Abstract

Urbanization affects the availability and diversity of floral resources (pollen and/or nectar) for wild pollinating insects. For example, urban green areas are characterized by an abundance of ornamental plant species. Increasingly, trees are planted to improve the aesthetics of urban streets and parks. These urban trees might offer important floral resources to pollinating insects. To examine the suitability of urban trees as resources for pollinating insects, we investigated the chemical composition of pollen and nectar as well as the amount of nectar produced by the nine major insect-pollinated tree species planted in cities of Western Europe, namely Acer pseudoplatanus, Aesculus carnea, A. hippocastanum, Robinia pseudoacacia, Tilia cordata, T. x euchlora, T. x europaea, T. platyphyllos and T. tomentosa. The analyses revealed that globally the Tilia trees provide pollen with lower contents of polypeptides, amino acids and phytosterols compared with the other species. Urban tree flowers offer abundant nectar with relatively high sugar contents (0.16–1.28 mg/flower); sucrose was the predominant sugar in all nectars. The investigated tree species could therefore be considered in future city plantings.

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Title: Food in a row: urban trees offer valuable floral resources to pollinating insects
Authors: Laurent Somme
Laura Moquet
Muriel Quinet
Maryse Vanderplanck
Denis Michez
Georges Lognay
Anne-Laure Jacquemart
Publication date: 18-04-2016
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Urban Ecosystems / Issue 3/2016
Print ISSN: 1083-8155
Electronic ISSN: 1573-1642
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-016-0555-z

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