Fluorescent dye particles as pollen analogues for measuring pollen dispersal in an insect-pollinated forest herb.

In flowering plants, pollen dispersal is often the major contributing component to gene flow, hence a key parameter in conservation genetics and population biology. A cost-effective method to assess pollen dispersal consists of monitoring the dispersal of fluorescent dyes used as pollen analogues. However, few comparisons between dye dispersal and realized pollen dispersal have been performed to validate the method.