The global relationship between flowering plant and pollinator diversity holds true across scales, latitude, and human influence

Animal pollination underpins plant reproduction and biodiversity across most terrestrial ecosystems1,2,3,4, yet the global relationships between plant and pollinator diversity remain poorly understood. Here we demonstrate, for the first time at a global scale, a consistent positive relationship between local flowering plant richness and pollinator species richness, observed across a wide range of environments and geographic gradients. This relationship is strongly shaped by human influence: relatively undisturbed or semi-natural communities support higher pollinator diversity per plant species than anthropogenic habitats. However, contrary to expectation, restored and even some novel ecosystems can approach the pollinator richness of more pristine systems. These findings support recent studies challenging long-held assumptions that degraded habitats are inevitably poor in biodiversity, and highlight the potential for ecological restoration to recover functional pollination networks. We also refine global estimates of the prevalence of animal pollination among flowering plants, finding that while the overall proportion remains high, it varies predictably with geography and habitat context. Together, these results underscore the central role of diverse plant communities in sustaining pollinator diversity and offer hope for the recovery of degraded habitats in maintaining this vital ecological function.