Linden trees, plants belonging to the genus Tilia, have insects, particularly bees and bumblebees, as their main pollinators. These insects are attracted by the intense fragrance emanating from the flowers of these trees.
A new investigation has revealed that this relationship between linden trees and bumblebees already existed in the Cenozoic, about 24 million years ago. Thus, bumblebees were already considered among the main pollinators of these trees since that remote epoch.
The investigation demonstrates that the attraction exerted by the fragrance of flowers on pollinators is a mechanism that remains consistent over millions of years, maintaining the importance of bumblebees in the pollination of linden trees from the distant past to the present day.
