The National Geographic article, titled “Love and Lies” by Michael Pollan is entertaining (as in laugh out loud) as well as informative. This reads like a love triangle of how orchids spread their genes in the wild by deceiving birds and bees into believing they are the female of their species. The diabolical orchid achieves this deceit by fragrance, color, and of course, by touch with the promise of sex.
Pollan writes of the Ophyrs species, aka, the “Prostitute Orchid” that resembles the hind end of a female bee and lures in the male bee to attach its sticky yellow seed sac to the back of its victim, turning him into an oblivious pollinator. The male bee, often called a “flying penis” by botanists, (for real) then flies off in search of another orchid and unwittingly deposits the wily orchid’s seed sac there. This "pseudocopulation" is evolutionary genius.
Even Charles Darwin was intrigued by the process of how a stationary plant like the orchid lures and lies, “counting of the kindness of strangers,” in their effort to pollinate. The then rogue theory of natural selection was studied and presented by Darwin in The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids are Fertilised by Insects. Pollen writes that “…the peculiarities of orchid sex actually offer one of the great case studies of natural selection, as Charles Darwin himself understood."
The exquisite photographs by Christian Ziegler are alone worth a trip to the site. His back story of snapping these pictures is equally fascinating. Check out http://www.photographyblog.com/articles/photographing_orchids_with_christian_ziegler/
Read this article on the “Love and Lies” of the deceitful orchid. You are sure to find it intriguing and humorous. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/09/orchids/pollan-text
The author, Michael Pollan has written In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, both books that will change the way you look at and eat food. http://www.michaelpollan.com/write.php
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