News Plants Projectile pollen helps this flower edge out reproductive competition Pollen blasts from Hypenea macrantha flowers knock competitors’ pollen off hummingbird beaks To see if Hypenea macrantha flowers blow competitors’ pollen from hummingbird beaks, researchers poked skulls of the birds laden with fluorescent pollen into flowers (as shown) and tracked how much remained. Bruce Anderson Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterPinterestPocketRedditPrint By Nala Rogers 19 hours ago Some flowers may be using their pollinators as sexual battlegrounds. Red, Brazilian flowers called Hypenea macrantha use projectile blasts of pollen to knock rival pollen off of hummingbirds’ beaks and replace it with their own, researchers report in a study to appear in the American Naturalist.