# First Measurements of Mixed Floral Traits Influencing Anacardium occidentale (Anacardeacae) Attractiveness to Bees in Côte d'Ivoire: Conservation and Agricultural Implications

## TL;DR

This study explores how cashew flowers in Côte d'Ivoire attract bees, finding that certain floral traits significantly boost pollination and fruit yield.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach to using mixed floral traits to improve cashew yields and support pollinator conservation.

## Key findings

- Preferred cashew plants had higher flower density and better pollen and nectar quality, attracting more bees.
- Floral traits significantly increased bee visitation networks and fruiting rates.
- These traits can help identify high-yielding cashew plants and support pollinator preservation.

## Abstract

In Sub‐Saharan Africa, cashew plants face challenges in suitable pollination and good agronomic performances. These challenges can largely be attributed to the ability of cashew floral traits in pollinator attraction. However, especially in Côte d'Ivoire, little is known about the roles of morphology and density of cashew flowers and floral rewards in attracting bee species. Likewise, the relationships between plants' attractiveness, number of pollinator visits, and fruiting rate are rarely the focus of study. Therefore, we contrasted in 3 Ivoirian regions two categories of cashew seeing the bees' foraging preference toward their flowers: trees with high foraging intensity versus trees with low activity (respectively called preferred versus non‐preferred plants). Our aim was to know whether the floral traits varied among these categories of plants, and whether this variation might affect bees' foraging intensity and the yield. Results showed that the two categories of cashew were significantly different in density of flowers, quantity of pollens and nectars, and their contents in sugars and amino‐acids in the pollens and nectars, and showed that these floral traits were strongly involved in bee pollinators recruitment (Wilks = 0.002384, df = 1, p < 0.0001). These floral traits also significantly increased the bees' visitation networks from 11 to 38 species and their interactions from 984 to 8271 visits, and agronomic performances from 10.63% ± 6.65% to 50.15% ± 5.34%. Floral traits related to bee visitations, if well‐investigated, may be used to identify high‐yielding cashew plants and preserve pollinators.

This paper will contribute to include/use the bees' floral preference (floral traits related to bee' visitations) to find and validate genetic markers that would enable breeding high‐yielding cashew plants and preserving pollinators.