A MODEL AND LEXICON FOR POLLEN FATE

As pollination biology undergoes unprecedented growth as a discipline, confusion in the use of terms has become increasingly common. The nee d for a flexible yet unambiguous terminology has become urgent. As an example we discuss how the term ''pollination efficiency'' is used dif ferently by 18 studies, and ''pollinator effectiveness'' by seven othe rs. Here we present flowcharts of two general models of pollination sy stems (biotic and abiotic) that trace all the events from pollen produ ction to development of seed or fruit, and we develop a lexicon for th e quantities of pollen, processes of transfers (to a vector, to a stig ma), and ratios of quantities that are of interest in studies of polli nation and mating systems. An appendix includes a glossary of the defi nitions we suggest.