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DECEITFUL FLOWERS
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Pollination, this marvelous partnership between insects and flowers may seem like a marriage made in heaven, and in most cases it is so, but there are also some bad marriages. We saw the cases in which insects exploit flowers,(see: Cheaters and Robbers). But it isn't always the flowers that are the victims. Plants are quite capable of devising ways of seducing, cheating and even killing inocent insects in their efforts to have them perform pollination.
Two families of plants notorious for their number of deceitful flowers are the Araceae (calla lilies, Jack-in-the-pulpit, skunk cabbage and others) and Orchidaceae, the orchids. A few other families of flowering plants also have some members that exploit insects |
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Jack-in the-pulpit flowers are either male or female. The male ones have an escape route for the insect at the bottom. The female flowers don't have that little opening and the unfortunate insect that visits them perishes inside. |
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When the female flower goes to seed you can find the mummified bodies of the trapped pollinators. |
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Jack-in-the-pulpit male flower with small opening
(See enlargement at right) |
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Skunk cabbage is another member of the Araceae family and it also tricks insects but with different methods. Its strong smell and dark color attract carrion flies that lay their eggs thinking that it is rotting flesh. The babies die of starvation. |
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Orchids have a huge variety of methods for luring and deceiving insects. May be this is why we find them so seductive. Some orchids even imitate the colors and smell of female wasps or bees. The males try in vain to mate with them and get pollen stack to their bodies in the process. Later on they pass the pollen to another orchid, obviously they don't learn their lesson despite the frustration.
One local orchid, the lady slipper uses another technique. Some insects attracted by them fall into the sac and can't get out the way that they came in. With great struggle they manage to go out through a narrow passage in the back of the flower, this route forces them to pick some pollen or deliver it. They too, dont seem to learn that they get nothing in return. |
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Pink lady slipper |
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Large white trillium |
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Purple trillium or "Stinking-Benjamin" |
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Most trilliums are pollinated the usual way and some of them smell sweetly in addition to being lovely.But the purple trillium smells very strongly like rotten meat and attracts carrion flies as pollinators. Once again the flies get nothing in return, their eggs hatch and the babies die of starvation. |
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Photography by Beatriz Moisset. Most pictures were taken in Montgomery County and Bucks County, PA in 2002 to 2004 |
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Send your comments to: [email protected] |
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