Naturescape Gallery at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History is proud to present Flowers and Their Pollinators by Cape Cod nature photographer, conservationist and biochemist, Dr. Hans Rilling from August 1 – August 31, 2015.

Flowers have long been admired and used by humans to beautify their environment, and also as objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and as a source of food.   

A flower, or blossom, is also the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers give rise to fruit and seeds. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.

A pollinator is the biological agent (vector) that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization.  Insect pollinators include bees, pollen wasps, a variety of flies including bee flies and hoverflies; both butterflies and moths; and flower beetles. Vertebrates, mainly birds, but also some mammals – bats, monkeys, lemurs, possums, and rodents and some reptiles such as lizards, pollinate certain plants.  Among the pollinating birds are hummingbirds, honeyeaters and sunbirds with long beaks; they pollinate a number of deep-throated flowers.

Come visit the Naturescape Gallery during the month of August to view Hans Rilling’s stunning photographs of Flowers and Their Pollinators!

Free with Museum Admission

For more information please call the Museum at 508-896-3867 ext. 133.