Intercropping flowering plants in maize systems increases pollinator diversity

Pollinator attractiveness increases with distance from flowering orchids.

Orchids are extraordinary among plants because many species are pollinated through sexual duplicity by producing flowers that mimic female insects to lure unsuspecting males. Previous work showed that sexual deception by the orchid Chiloglottis trapeziformis can have a negative impact on its wasp pollinator Neozeleboria cryptoides. We report that female wasps may be capable of mitigating the co...

Maize and Pigeonpea Intercropping Systems in Mpumalanga, South Africa

Light Competition in Chinese Cabbage/Maize Strip Intercropping Systems

Due to drastic socio-economic changes traditional intercropping systems in China are endangered. New high yielding intercropping systems that can easily be mechanized have to be developed. By using environmental resources more efficiently intercropping often produces higher yields compared to monocropping. Solar radiation as the strongest growth factor plays a key role when designing new interc...

The role of local species abundance in the evolution of pollinator attraction in flowering plants.

We present a population genetic model that incorporates aspects of pollinator efficiency and abundance to examine the effect of the local plant community on the evolution of floral trait specialization. Our model predicts that plant species evolve to be pollinator specialists on the most effective and common pollinators when their abundance is low relative to other plant species in the communit...

An evaluation of yield in "intercropping of maize and potato"

Abstract To find out how maize and potato can grow and develop in an intercropping system rather than each grown alone in a sole cropping system the following factorial experiment was performend in the frame-work of a randomized complete block three replications in the experimental farm of the faculty of agriculture, Zanjan University in year 2004. Different potato to maize ratios of (1:0), i...