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🐝 Pollination Network

Bees forage among flower patches of different species, carrying pollen between visits; flower constancy and nectar reward shape an emergent cross-pollination network.

Biology & Life2DEasy60 FPS

How it Works

Several flower patches of different species (each drawn in its own colour) are scattered across the canvas, each flower holding a nectar reserve that drains when a bee visits and slowly regenerates afterward. Every bee remembers which species of pollen it is currently carrying. When choosing its next flower, a bee rolls against the flower-constancy probability: with that probability it heads for the nearest flower of the same species it already carries, and otherwise it scores nearby flowers by a mix of proximity and remaining nectar and picks the best one regardless of species.

When a bee lands on a flower carrying pollen from a different species, that counts as a cross-pollination event — pollen from the old species is deposited on the new flower, a counter increments, and a faint edge is drawn on the small species network in the corner linking the two species. The bee then picks up the landed flower's pollen and drinks its nectar (draining the reserve) before flying off toward its next target, so the pattern of edges that accumulates over time reflects which species pairs actually get cross-pollinated most often given the current constancy and nectar settings.

Choice: if rand() < constancy AND carrying pollen → target = nearest flower of same species
Else: target = argmax_f ( nectar(f)/maxNectar − distanceWeight · dist(bee,f)/W )
Cross-pollination: if carriedSpecies ≠ flower.species → crossCount++, network[carried][flower.species] += 1
Nectar dynamics: nectar(f) += regenRate·dt; on visit nectar(f) -= drink; nectar ∈ [0, maxNectar]

Frequently Asked Questions

What is flower constancy?

Flower constancy is a real foraging bias where a pollinator tends to keep visiting the same flower species across consecutive trips instead of switching between species, even when a different species is closer or more rewarding, because it reduces the learning cost of handling different flower shapes.

How does a cross-pollination event happen in this simulation?

Each bee remembers the species of pollen it last picked up. When it lands on a flower of a different species while still carrying that older pollen, a cross-pollination event fires, an edge is strengthened between the two species on the network overlay, and the bee then picks up the new flower's pollen.

Why does nectar level affect where bees go?

When a bee is not being constant to its current species, it weighs nearby flowers by both distance and remaining nectar reward, so patches that have regenerated a large nectar reserve are more likely to be chosen than patches that were recently drained.

What does the flower constancy slider actually change?

It sets the probability that a bee, when picking its next flower, prefers the nearest flower of the same species it is currently carrying pollen from over switching to whichever nearby flower offers the best combination of distance and nectar.

Why is cross-pollination important in real ecosystems?

Cross-pollination between individuals, and sometimes closely related species, increases genetic diversity in plant populations, which improves seed viability and resilience to disease, so the network of pollinator visits shown here has a direct effect on plant fitness in nature.

About this simulation

Every bee is a tiny decision-maker running one biased coin flip per flight — stay loyal to the flower species it already carries, or defect to whichever nearby patch currently offers the richest nectar. Turn Flower Constancy all the way up and the species network in the corner stays nearly silent; drag it down and watch cross-pollination edges light up between every pair of colours as bees start mixing pollen across species.

🔬 What it shows

Bees foraging across multiple flower-species patches, each carrying pollen from its last stop and cross-pollinating whichever new species it lands on, visualised live as a small weighted network graph.

🎮 How to use

Click the canvas to plant a new flower, tune Bee Count, Flower Species, Nectar Regen Rate, Flower Constancy and Bee Flight Speed, and watch the corner network graph thicken as cross-species visits accumulate.

💡 Did you know?

Honeybees can be trained in a single afternoon to strongly prefer one flower colour or shape over another, a real behavioural flower-constancy effect that beekeepers and crop growers exploit to keep pollinators focused on a single target crop.

Frequently asked questions

What is flower constancy?

How does a cross-pollination event happen in this simulation?

Why does nectar level affect where bees go?

What does the flower constancy slider actually change?

Why is cross-pollination important in real ecosystems?

⚙ Under the hood

Bees forage among flower patches of different species, carrying pollen between visits; flower constancy and nectar reward shape an emergent cross-pollination network.

Canvas 2DPollinationMutualismForagingNetwork

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install