Module: | Pollination & Outbreeding Devices
Q61: Consider the following statements regarding the translator mechanism and pollinia in Calotropis:
1. In plants like Calotropis, individual pollen grains are not shed freely; instead, all the pollen of a single anther lobe is aggregated into a compact mass called a pollinium.
2. These pollinia are mechanically extracted and transported by insect pollinators using a specialized structural apparatus known as the translator.
3. Calotropis represents a classic example of an anemophilous (wind-pollinated) plant that relies on severe gales to detach these heavy pollinia.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
2. These pollinia are mechanically extracted and transported by insect pollinators using a specialized structural apparatus known as the translator.
3. Calotropis represents a classic example of an anemophilous (wind-pollinated) plant that relies on severe gales to detach these heavy pollinia.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
✅ Correct Answer: A
The correct option is A. Statements 1 and 2 are correct, while Statement 3 is strictly incorrect.
The family Asclepiadaceae (which includes Calotropis, the milkweed) displays highly advanced reproductive morphology.
Rather than producing powdery, easily dispersed pollen, the entire contents of an anther locule are glued together into a single, waxy, sac-like structure called a pollinium.
Two adjacent pollinia are connected to a central sticky gland (the corpusculum) by arms (caudicles), collectively forming the "translator apparatus." Statement 3 fails the basic physics of pollination.
Because pollinia are extremely massive and heavy, wind cannot possibly move them.
Calotropis is strictly entomophilous.
When an insect (usually a large bee or wasp) visits the flower, its leg gets caught in the translator.
As it flies away, it yanks the entire pollinia apparatus out of the flower, carrying it to the next plant.
The family Asclepiadaceae (which includes Calotropis, the milkweed) displays highly advanced reproductive morphology.
Rather than producing powdery, easily dispersed pollen, the entire contents of an anther locule are glued together into a single, waxy, sac-like structure called a pollinium.
Two adjacent pollinia are connected to a central sticky gland (the corpusculum) by arms (caudicles), collectively forming the "translator apparatus." Statement 3 fails the basic physics of pollination.
Because pollinia are extremely massive and heavy, wind cannot possibly move them.
Calotropis is strictly entomophilous.
When an insect (usually a large bee or wasp) visits the flower, its leg gets caught in the translator.
As it flies away, it yanks the entire pollinia apparatus out of the flower, carrying it to the next plant.