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Ecological Interactions Lab (Ohashi Lab)
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A lab that explores the evolution of floral traits through the interactions between flowers and pollinators.
AboutAbout the lab
Decoding the relationship between flowers and pollinators
The Ecological Interactions Lab (Ohashi Lab) studies the interactions that species exert on one another and the traits that organisms have evolved through those relationships.
A specialty of the lab is the relationship between the flowers of angiosperms and pollinators, the animals that visit flowers in search of nectar and pollen.
Based on field surveys, the lab chooses methods to suit each question, including laboratory experiments and mathematical models involving computer simulations.
The lab also carries out collaborative research with various researchers in Japan and abroad.
Key terms
- Pollinator
- An animal that visits flowers in search of nectar and pollen and carries pollen between them. In temperate regions, bumblebees are the main pollinators.
- Self-pollination
- Pollination by pollen from the same plant. The website describes it as the most extreme form of inbreeding.
- Trapline
- The behavior in which experienced bees repeatedly visit their favorite plants along a fixed route.
- Flower color change
- A change in flower color before the flower finishes blooming. The flowers that change color are old ones that no longer produce nectar or pollen.
NewsLab news
A paper first-authored by a graduate was published in Arthropod-Plant Interactions
A paper co-authored with researchers at Kyoto University was published in Functional Ecology
A paper first-authored by a lab member was published in Functional Ecology
A student received the Society for the Study of Species Biology Poster Award at the 56th Symposium on Species Biology
A student received a Poster Award (Excellence Award) at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan
ResearchResearch themes
Using the relationship between flowers and pollinators as its stage, the lab investigates traits that arose through relationships among organisms. It follows the behavior of bumblebees and other pollinators through field surveys, laboratory experiments, and simulations.
*Illustrative imageFlowers that make nectar feeding difficult
The lab found that flowers with complex shapes, from which nectar is hard to obtain, prevent pollinators from staying long on the same plant. This increases movement between plants and helps avoid self-pollination.
*Illustrative imagePollinators that learn
Experienced bumblebees repeatedly visit their favorite plants along a fixed route (a trapline). Simulations showed that this movement carries pollen farther.
*Illustrative imageFlowers that repaint their signboards
In plants with flower color change, whose flowers change color before they finish blooming, the flowers that change color are old ones that no longer produce nectar or pollen. This is thought to be a strategy that keeps old flowers on the plant to make it conspicuous while using color to signal whether a reward is present.
*Illustrative imageFlowers that open at set times
Even among flowers that stay open for several days, the time of day at which buds open is almost fixed, and it varies by species among morning, noon, evening, and night. Adenophora triphylla var. japonica (Japanese name: tsurigane-ninjin) opens in the evening, and its pollination was carried out by moths that visit at night.
MembersFaculty
The Ecological Interactions Lab consists of faculty members and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- LecturerKazuharu Ohashi
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Bumblebees (Bombus sp.) on a Dahlia flower in Paipa, Boyacá, Colombia” Reduvida3 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Flowers that make nectar feeding difficult: “Purple coneflowers and a bee, Cathleen Kuehl Memorial Wildflower Meadow” Peter Cooper Jr. / CC0 (cropped)
- Pollinators that learn: “Bumblebee foraging on a hollyhock, Attingham Park, Shropshire” Christian David / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Flowers that repaint their signboards: “Weigela middendorffiana Flower Color Change” Grace Hensley / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Flowers that open at set times: “Hummingbird hawk-moth feeding on flowers in Yerevan” Wowan1978 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (神経
行動学・進化生物学 （石川 由希） ): “Insect predation” Polychronis Rempoulakis / CC BY 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (保全生態学研究室): “Pollinator - bumblebee and bee” Jakub Fryš / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (進化生物学
（賴本 隼汰） ): “Colibri-thalassinus-001-edit” Mdf, Edited by Laitche / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped) - Related lab (微生物生態学
（増本 翔太） ): “Alpine Tundra Plants on Grey Mountain ( )” Chris Hunkeler from Carlsbad, California, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
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