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Axinaea affinis is a species of tree in the family Melastomataceae. It is native to mountainous regions of the Andes in South America in Peru and Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
Most members of the family Melastomataceae are pollinated by buzz pollination, a technique whereby certain species of bee are able to create vibrations that loosen the pollen when they visit the blooms, but the flowers of members of the genus Axinaea have unique appendages to their stamens and are pollinated by birds. These flowers do not produce nectar, but the appendages are inflated and bulbous and have a high sugar content, and birds find them attractive to eat. As the bird plucks and grasps the bulbous portion with its beak, air is forced out through a small orifice, carrying a puff of pollen which lands on the face and neck of the bird. As the bird feeds on other flowers, transfer of pollen is likely to occur. Some pollen lands in the centre of the flower which means that some self-pollination probably occurs. Another factor that raises pollination rates in some populations of the tree, is simultaneous flowering.
Axinaea merianiae · Axinaea nitida · Axinaea pauciflora · Axinaea quitensis · Axinaea sclerophylla · Axinaea sessilifolia · Axinaea sodiroi · Axinaea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Axinaea affinis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
