Flowers in the sea get pollinated by zooplankton

Up to now, the scientific world believed that the pollination of aquatic flowers was due to marine currents. The expert thought that currents by moving water was carrying pollen of male plants randomly to female plants. But researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have just discovered that in the sea, small animals played the same role as our insects, bees, butterflies etc.

Those small animals are marine invertebrates:

• – Amphipods small crustaceans
• – Aquatic worms
• – Polychaeta, living in tropical marine meadows underwater meadows have flowers.

The crustaceans are attracted by the pollen of male flowers, rich in carbohydrates and proteins. The pollen then sticks on the body of these small pollinators, which then carry it from one plant to another one. By doing those movement, those small marine invertebrates place the pollen on the stigma part of the pistil that receives pollen of the female flower. Moreover, to move, those small invertebrates, can be carried by the current but are also able to navigate on their own.