Preliminary Study on the Birds Pollination of Three Theaceae Species in Southwest China

From 2012 to 2015, 9 species of pollination birds belonging to 7 genera of 7 families were found on three Theaceae species, i.e., Camellia oleifera Abel., Camellia riticulata Lindl. and Polyspora longicarpa (H. T. Chang) C. X. Ye, in Guiyang, Ceheng, Wangmo of Guizhou Province and in Tengchong of Yunnan Province. Southwest China has long been considered as the differentiation center and biodiversity center of birds and Theaceae in Oriental, but so many pollinating birds concentrated on plant of Theaceae visiting flowers, especially some medium-sized birds, such as Pycnotidae, Chloropseidae, Dicruridae, and Corvidae, were very rare. Further studies showed that most pollinated birds of the three plants species are short-billed birds that are occasional nectarivores and pollination syndrome exhibits on the generalized bird pollinator adaptation. Theaceae pollination system consists of insect pollination and bird pollination, the two subsystems constitute the mosaic.