Bahama swamp-bush, a shrub endemic to the Bahama Islands, appears to be exclusively pollinated by two bird species on San Salvador Island: bananaquits and Bahama woodstars. The populations of these nectarivorous birds apparently were decimated by Hurricane Lili in October 1996 which stripped most plants of their floral resources and leaves. After this hurricane, these birds were seldom seen visiting flowers of Bahama swamp-bush during the major winter flowering period in 1996-7, and 49% of the flowers had no pollen deposition on stigmas. In contrast, in winter 1994-5, these birds were frequent flower visitors, and only 2% of the flowers had no pollen deposition. Correspondingly, fruit set (fruit/flower) declined dramatically from 82% in 1994-5 to 11% in 1996-7. Based on pollen augmentation experiments, this reduced fruit set was caused by both pollen-limitation and resource-limitation. In several other studies, severe hurricanes have been demonstrated to devastate populations of nectarivorous birds. These results indicate that hurricanes can substantially limit the fruit set of bird-pollinated plants, both indirectly through effects on bird pollinators and directly through resource limitation.

Key words: bird pollination, hurricane effects, Pavonia bahamensis (Malvaceae), pollen limitation of fruit set, pollination, resource limitation of fruit set