Unsung Heroes of Pollination

Unsung Heroes of Pollination shows the reader a hidden world of pollination, where flies, wasps, mosquitoes, bats and beetles take centre stage. Naturalists, gardeners, citizen scientists and flower enthusiasts are invited to journey into the undergrowth, following Professor Peter Bernhardt and a cast of scientists across Australia, the USA, South Africa, China and Fiji.

Leaving the familiar birds and bees behind, Bernhardt uncovers stories of reward, cooperation and deception between plants and animals. The author also pays homage to an earlier generation of naturalists who first investigated these unusual relationships during the first half of the 20th century. He explores how flowers have evolved in structure and function, and how pollination systems have emerged and diversified over time. Discover the remarkable ‘fit’ between animal senses and floral signals, and see how flowers advertise their secret rewards. Stunning colour plates bring you face-to-face with overlooked pollinators and their flowers – from an amber fossil of the bee-like crabronid wasp that flew millions of years ago, and a modern chloropid gnat wearing an orchid’s pollinia on its back, to the elaborate lip petals of hammer orchids luring male wasps, and the long tongue of a tube-lipped nectar bat reaching for its prize.

This is a captivating glimpse into the wonders of an unseen – and unsung – world.

About the Author

Professor Peter Bernhardt is a widely read expert on pollination, whose career includes stints in the USA, China, Australia and fieldwork around the world. He is the author/co-author of more than 100 scientific papers and 23 books and chapters. From 1990 to 1996 his column, ‘The Botanical Detective', appeared in The Sydney Review and his articles were also published in Natural History Magazine, Garden, Plant Talk and Good Gardening Australia and New Zealand.

He remains a foreign correspondent and commentator for ‘The Science Show’ on Radio Australia. In 2022, Peter received the scientific outreach award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists for outstanding contributions to public education in Systematic Botany. Peter remains a supporter of the Nutcote Museum in Neutral Bay, NSW and the Kunming Institute of Botany in Yunnan, China.