Abstract
Flowering plants appeared on the planet over 100 million years ago, and have enjoyed remarkable evolutionary success : they now represent the majority of the living mass on the planet, are at the base of most terrestrial food chains, including those to which humans belong, and play a part in regulating the climate. Their life cycle and reproduction are original and diversified. Because they live in the soil, they depend on vectors for their sexual reproduction, vectors that enable partners to meet. These vectors can be physical (wind and sometimes water), but most often they are animals known as pollinators : insects, birds, but also mammals, reptiles, molluscs, crustaceans... However, plants are also capable of autonomous reproduction : vegetative reproduction or sexual reproduction with themselves (self-fertilization). The lecture will present the conditions that favor the evolution of these different reproductive strategies, to show that cross-breeding between individuals, and therefore plant-pollinator interactions, are favored in the long term.
