In Asia, where palm trees are nonnative, the trees' flowers have traditionally been pollinated by hand, which has kept palm fruit productivity unnaturally low
When weevils known to be efficient pollinators of palm flowers were introduced into Asia in 1980, palm fruit productivity increased-by up to 50 percent in some areas-but then decreased sharply in 1984
Rapid increases in productivity tend to deplete trees of nutrients needed for the development of the fruit-producing female flowers.