In article , Dave Poole
writes
Kay wrote:

Strelitzias, like many tropicals, are hummingbird pollinated, aren't
they? and therefore need colour but not scent.

Right idea - wrong continent

Took me a long time to work that one out ... isn't Africa tropical? But
do you mean humming-birds are S American? (Birds aren't my thing)

- they are South African and therefore
pollinated by sun birds, which use the horizontal spathe as a perch
while they sip the nectar.

Insects also respond to colour however and pollinate
non-fragrant plants even in the UK .

Yes, of course. There is a whole range of pale blue/purple which show up
particularly well in the half light of the evening to attract moths,
bees are particularly attracted to cornflower blue (as you find out if
you wear a blue dress), and of course we have a whole range of UK
natives in shades of pink, blue and yellow.

Do insects respond to a different range of colour from birds? We don't
have so many bright orange british natives. And not many red.

You should see the bees visiting
the bottle brushes here - they go quite delirious in their frenzied
nectar bingeing.

No, I wasn't bemoaning a lack of choice of fragrant plants, just that
the heady fragrance of many roses (especially the old fashioned types)
is quite unique and something I miss occasionally.

Which was one of the things I was wondering - there is presumably a co-
evolution of pollinating insect and attracting chemical, and is the
chemical behind the rose scent one that had evolved in temperate areas
and not in tropical?
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"