Plants use air, water (abiotic agents) and animals (biotic agents) for pollination.
Pollination by wind
: It is the most common form of abiotic pollination.
Plants possess well-exposed stamens and large, feathery stigma.
Pollens should be light and non-sticky to be carried easily by winds.
Wind-pollinated flowers often have single ovule in the ovary and numerous flowers packed in an inflorescence.
It is common in grass.
Pollination by water
It is rare in flowering plants, except for some aquatic plants like Vallisneria and Hydrilla.
In most water-pollinated plants, the pollen grains are long and ribbon-like, and are protected from wetting by mucilaginous covering.
In a majority of water plants like water hyacinth and water lily, flowers emerge above the water level and are pollinated by insects.
Pollination by animals
Majority of flowering plants use butterflies, bees, wasps etc., for pollination.
Most of the insect-pollinated flowers are large, colourful, fragrant, and contain nectar to attract the animal pollinators. These are called floral rewards.
Floral reward can be in the form of providing safe places to lay eggs (example: the tallest flower, Amorphophallus)
A symbiotic relationship exists between the plant, Yucca and its pollinator moth.
The moth is dependent on the plant since the moth deposits its eggs in the locule of the ovary of the plant, and in return, the plant is pollinated by the moth.
The pollen grains are sticky and get stuck to the body of the pollinator
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