13 October, 2009

Love & Lies: The True Nature of Wild Orchids


"Many Orchids offer no nectar or pollen to reward the bumblebee - rather it seduces male bees with the promise of bee sex and then insures its pollination by frustrating exactly the desire it has excited. The Orchid accomplishes its sexual deception by mimicking the appearance, scent, and even the tactile experience of a female bee."




"The exactitude of the perfume business may help explain the astounding diversity of the orchid family. A mutation producing even a slight change in the orchid's scent could ... turn out to be the key that unlocks the sexual attentions of a new pollinator, while at the same time turning off the original one." -- National Geographic, September 2009


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