Those clever flowers - May 08, 2008
Flowers have been found to have several tricks up their, um, sleeves when it comes to attracting pollinators, according to two reports we spied today.
First off, they wave at passing insects to attract their attention (BBC).
John Warren from the University of Aberystwyth was apparently inspired by watching flowers waving about in the wind at his daughter’s birthday, and wondering why they risked having their slender stems snapped by such movement. Not finding much in the literature, he set out to find an answer.
In a study of 300 specially grown flowers of varying stem lengths, tall wavy flowers attracted more pollinators, they found (Journal of Evolutionary Biology). Sadly the story doesn’t say by how much, nor is this mentioned in the freely available abstract… though the abstract does add that insects stayed on wobbly flowers less long than they did on stationary ones. (If only Wordsworth knew there was a reason for his host of daffodils "fluttering and dancing in the breeze" his poem might have been different).
Secondly, researchers have found just how effective orchids can be at mimicking female wasps, as a way to lure male wasps in to collect their pollen (Reuters). Not only do they attract the boys (which was already known), but they also seem to excite them enough to cause an ejaculation (releasing “copious sperm” according to the report). Obviously this is a waste of time and energy for the wasps, but apparently it helps the orchids, somehow – I guess by increasing stickiness? “Orchid species provoking such extreme pollinator behavior have the highest pollination success," they report in The American Naturalist.
Photo by Keith Weller, USDA