Why does clover need bees?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

July 9, 2003

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White or Dutch clover (Trifolium repens Linnaeus) is native to Europe; the highly nutritious plant has been introduced worldwide as forage for pasture animals. The tiny white clover flowers or florets are borne on dense spikes giving the appearance of globular heads. The inflorescence may have anywhere from fifty to two hundred-fifty florets, but only ten or twelve are open and
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attracting bees at anyone time.

Clover florets are papilionaceous, "butterfly-like". Each floret has five petals: the uppermost called the vexillum, banner, or standard; two laterals called wing petals; and two united petals called the keel. The keel petals form a sheath that protects the united stamens (staminal tube) and the pistil. (Hortus Third, Staff, Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, Cornell, 1976)

Honey, bumble, or orchard, bees are vital to the survival of clover. When the bee lands on the floret and presses on the wings and keel petals, the staminal tube is exposed. At the base of the staminal tube is the nectary. While the bee drinks the nectar, the staminal tube touches the underside of the bee leaving pollen. When the bee leaves, she carries the pollen to the next floret where some of it will be deposited on the stigma. ("Chapter 3: Clover and Some Relatives", Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Agricultural Research Station Tucson, USDA)

If the bee visits another floret on the same clover plant, the floret will be pollinated, but not fertilized, the union of the pollen's sex cells with the ovules. White clover is allogamous "other marry"; the gametes or sex cells of the plant are not compatible and will not fuse to form seeds. The pollen must be carried to florets on a different plant.

It appears that honeybees are best at ensuring the cross-pollination. Athole Marshall, Terry Michaelson-Yeates, and Ingrid Williams found that honeybees visit fewer florets on each inflorescence than bumblebees. Hence they did not pollinate very many of the florets with self-incompatible pollen. Moving on to the next inflorescence, honeybees were more likely to carry pollen to another plant's florets. ("How Busy are Bees--modelling the pollination of clover", Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, 1999)

Michael L. Charters has a great close-up of a white clover inflorescence on his beautiful Southern California Wildflowers website. Notice the spent florets which droop at the base, those florets starting to wilt, and at the top, those with fully expanded banners, ready to shed and receive pollen. To view the clover inflorescence, click on the link:

http://www.calflora.net/bloomingplants/whiteclover.html

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