Protein content of pollen of Asteraceae collected by honey bees

Abstract

Our results, albeit based on a limited number of species, show that proteincontent of pollen of Asteraceae is variable. The generalized idea that pollen in this family has low protein content is probably due to the fact that records of pollen pellets of Asteraceae mostly include members of derived lineages which arewidely distributed. In the present study, we found that higher values of proteinappear to be comparatively more common in basal lineages. Relationships betweenpollinators and protein content of pollen cannot be suggested for the family.