Word: nectar
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Without honeybees and some 200,000 other species of insects, birds and small mammals, plants would be in a terrible predicament. So would humans. These creatures are the world's pollinators, quietly nuzzling and probing flowers for nectar and in the process, transferring DNA-bearing pollen from stamen to stigma. Without their work we wouldn't have healthy fruit and vegetables or viable seeds. We depend on this free service for 90% of our staple crops...
...horizon when settlers first forged west across what is now Iowa, only 200 remain, much of it in bits and pieces along highways. Butterflies are the main pollinators of those grasses and flowers, but the variety of vegetation is rapidly decreasing as the butterflies are forced to forage for nectar in ever smaller prairie fragments. Prairie phlox, for example, one of the most common Great Plains flowers, depends on the butterflies to reproduce. But if the phlox is broken up into small stands, the butterflies...
...proposed a calendar which would have shortened reading period, placed finals before Christmas and left a month--that's right, a month--between semesters. (A poll conducted a year before indicated that 70 percent of undergraduates favored such a change). As a transfer student, I've personally tasted the nectar of this type of calendar--and trust me, it's sweet...
...fourth of all mammal species. The only known group of flying mammals, they range in size from Thailand's tiny bumblebee bat, weighing less than a penny, to Indonesia's giant flying fox, with wingspans of nearly 6 ft. Many bats feed on insects, while others prefer fruit, nectar or pollen. A few feast on fish, frogs, rodents and, yes, blood. Contrary to legend, however, vampire bats, which dwell in Latin America, suck the blood of grazing cattle and horses, not sleeping humans...
...group answered the cheers and lighters of the packed house with an encore of "Nellie Cane," a bluegrass number sung by bassist Mike Gordon, and Picture of Nectar, "Cavern...