How can plants attract pollinators?
Cycads found in central Australia rely on thrips for pollination. The thrips are attracted by the scent, which then use to manage insects for male and female cones. Photo: M Bulbert © Australian Museum.
Just provide nectar can not guarantee that insects will come to a facility or transferring pollen to pollen recipients of the same species. For this reason, plants use visual and olfactory cues to attract and direct insects.
The scent is an effective way to attract pollinators. For example, strongly scented flowers tend to be visited by beetles and flies, while bees and butterflies visit fragrant flowers. It is also an effective way to manage pollinators to the pollen receivers.
Cycads from Australia internal use scent to lure thrips for pollination. Thrips are very small insects that can not carry much pollen grains, so the plant needs to attract a large number of them. A male Cycad cone laden with pollen will send a strong and pungent scent that will attract as many as 50 000 thrips. Female cones also emit an odor when they are ready to receive pollen, which then attracts the pollen-laden thrips.
Scent can also be used to fool the insects to be pollinators. The Corpse Flower of Indonesia uses a pungent smell of rotting meat to attract insects CarriĆ³n. The Australian Broad-lipped Orchid mimic the smell and also the emergence of a female Thynine wasps. This idiots male wasps in trying to mate with the flower that is pollinated in the process. www.bugwise.net.au
Saturday, December 20, 2008
How can plants attract pollinators?
How does flower shape affect pollinators?
How does flower shape affect pollinators?
A bee using its long tongue (Silhouette through the side of the flower) to access the nectar at the base of a flower with a long tubular head. Photo: © M Batley.
Flower form can restrict access to pollen and nectar for only the insects that have the right tools or skills. For example, the nectar at the bottom of a long tubular flower can only be accessed by insects, which have long mouthparts, such as butterflies, moths, flies and bees, which have long-lapping 'tongues'.
The flower shape can be so limiting, to a certain type of behavior may be required for access to pollen. For example, "Buzz pollination" is needed to pollinate many Hibberta species. It is practiced by the blue striped Bee and a number of native Australian carpenter bees, and includes bee farm on the site and vibrating the pollen out.
The relationship between flower shape and location of nectar is also used by plants to attract certain insects. Many legumes (eg Luzern), has hidden nectar, which can be opened only by big, strong bees like Leaf Cutter or Resin Bees. The flowers of these plants are closed. It is only by pushing down on the lower parts of the flower that opens up to allow access to the nectar. As spring flower pollen is flung open to taking body of bees. www.bugwise.net.au
Pollination of nectar feeders
Pollination of nectar feeders
A bee is based on hidden anthers as the lives of nectar. Photo: © D Nelson.
Most of flowering plants to encourage insects to visit their flowers at a secret sugar-rich liquid called nectar. This nectar collects in pools, which is below the sexual organs of the plant. As insects into the flower in search of nectar, it brushes against the anthers (pollen-bearing male parts of the flower). In doing so the insect collecting pollen when it sticks to her body. When the insect visits another flower for more nectar, the pollen is moved from his body to Stamford (pollen receiving female parts of the flower), causing pollination.
Pollination of a nectar feeder has a range of potential benefits, including:
- The location of nectar ensure insect can not avoid touching the bodies associated with pollination.
- Pure nectar feeders such as butterflies and moths do not eat pollen.
How can insects pollinate plants?
How can insects pollinate plants?
Pollination of pollen-feeder
A beetle collect pollen on her body as it feeds. Photo: © D Nelson.
Many insects eat pollen. In the process of eating becomes the subject of it. Pollination occurs when the pollen feeder transfer pollen to pollen recipients of the same plant or another plant of the same nature as insect look for more pollen to eat.
Drawbacks of attracting a pollen feeder:
- Eating too much postal facility want delivered - pollen.
- They tend to be general feeders and eat other parts of the plant, including sexual organs.
- They can be regarded as' unreliable pollinators' as a pollinator can not go anywhere near the female organs of the same species of plant.
Why is pollination by insects important
A fly resting on the anthers as it uses the sponge-like mouthparts to absorb the nectar. Photo: © O Batley.
Why is pollination by insects important for the environment and us?
- Pollination by insects is a much more reliable and effective pollination mechanism than the chance of spreading.
- Pollination by insects provides plant community structures.
- Pollination by insects is particularly important for Australian native trees and shrubs. For example, native bees pollinate many members of plant families Myrtaceae. This family includes eucalypts, angophoras and tea trees.
- Pollination by insects are essential for crop production. A third of the human food supply are crops that are dependent on pollination by bees.
What insects are pollinators?
Species of bees, beetles, flies, wasps, thrips, butterflies and moths are all successful pollinators.
These insects make good pollinators, because they share two important features:
* The flies, and are therefore able to visit many plants in a relatively short time,
* They are motivated to interact with pollen as they either eat it or food adjacent (eg nectar).
The most sophisticated relationship between plants and insects are generally those involving bees. The bees collect pollen and nectar, not only for itself but also to feed their young. For this reason, bees have developed a number of adaptations that make them particularly good pollen carriers. Bees have special hairs, which are designed to provide pollen 'curve' on their hindlegs and the underside of their abdomen. These adjustments will allow them to collect and transport large quantities of pollen. Bees are ideal pollinators because they visit many flowers, while carrying lots of pollen, before returning to their nest. So the chance that a bee will transfer pollen between flowers of the same species is very high.
Pollination by insect
What is pollination?
A leaf cutter bee manages to cover itself in pollen. Photo: © D Nelson.
Pollen is made of the male organs of a plant (anthers of flowers) and contains the genetic information necessary for plant reproduction. Pollination is the supply of pollen to the female organs of a plant (the parent of flowers).
Pollen can be transferred to the female organs at the same plant (self-pollination) or a second plant of the same species (cross-pollination). As a result of the pollination of plants produce seeds. Pollen can be spread by wind, water and animal pollinators such as insects, bats and birds.
How important is insect pollination?
It is estimated that 65% of all flowering plants and some seed plants (eg Cycads and Pines) require insects for pollination. This percentage is even greater for economically important crops that give fruits, vegetables, textile fiber and related products. Because the insects are as effective pollinators, plants have developed many ways to encourage them to visit. This has led to some strong associations between plants and insects. www.bugwise.net.au
Pollination of plants by insects
by Rudy SCHEIBNER,
Extension Entomologist
Pollination is a process by which plants receive pollen from other plants of the same species, so they can reproduce by forming seeds. Some plants are pollinated by the wind, and some are pollinated by insects or other small animals. When the plants are pollinated by insects, it looks like some kind of agreement was reached, after which the facility will provide insect with anything, if insect will pollinate the plant flowers in return. Although the plant and the insect can take advantage because of their connection to each other, the insect visits a flower usually not targeted pollinate the flower.
Honey Bees are very important insect pollinators. Most of the time, both honey bees and the plants they visit, is beneficial. The honey bee get some food and equipment get pollinated. When a honey bees collect pollen from the anthers (male reproductive part) of a flower, it brings the pollen in special pollen baskets on its hind legs. All that pollen will be taken back to the hive of bees' use. The honey bees is a messy producer of food, and some pollen gets stuck on the hairs of her body. When bien visit the next flower, some of the pollen brushes off the flower, and if it sticks to the stigma (female part) of the flower, pollination will take place. Bien does not make any effort to put the pollen in the right place.
Bees also collect pollen from corn, grain but gets nothing in return. Corn is pollinated by the wind. When honey bees try to get nectar from a flower alfalfa, the flower has a tripping device, which merges the bees in the face with one, too (the pollen-bearing part of a flower). It is the flower on the way to ensure that its pollen being attached to an insect to transfer to another flower. Bees do not like being slapped in the face, so they usually find some other kind of plant to get nectar. Some of the bees learn to chew a hole in the side of the flower and get to the nectar through the side door. When they do that pollination occurs not because the pollen on the bees do not reach the top of stigma. So it seems that the only reason for a bee visit a flower is to get what it wants and not to perform a pollination service. Pollination occurs as a happy accident of the flower.
Many other kinds of insects as wasps, flies, beetles, thrips and other types of bees, feeding on nectar or pollen also pollinate flowers by accident. However, there are at least some insects, who deliberately make sure that the flowers they visit get pollinated. The way a Yucca flower is built, it may not be pollinated in the ordinary way, and it depends on the special service of a Yucca moths to do it. When the moths come to a Yucca flower assemble a ball of pollen, and then goes to the ovaries of the female part of the flower, where it includes some eggs. Then rises to the top of the female part of the flower and puts the ball of pollen on the stigma where it is due for pollination to occur.
Now that it is pollinated, the flower can produce seeds in her ovary. The Yucca moth larvae eat some of the seeds, but many are left over to produce new Yucca plant. Because Yucca moth larvae eat only Yucca seed, and Yucca plant is pollinated only by Yucca moths, both moth and the plant will depend on each other for survival. www.uky.edu
( The image from www.landcareresearch.co.nz)
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Salak (snake fruit)
Salak (Salacca zalacca, syn. S. edulis, Calamus zalacca) is a species of palm tree (family Arecaceae) native to Indonesia and Malaysia. It is a very short-stemmed palm, with leaves up to 6m long; each leaf has a 2m long petiole with spines up to 15cm long, and numerous leaflets.
The fruit grow in clusters at the base of the palm, and are also known as snake fruit due to the reddish-brown scaly skin. They are about the size and shape of a ripe fig, with a distinct tip. The pulp is edible. The fruit can be peeled by pinching the tip which should cause the skin to slough off so it can be pulled away. The fruit inside consists of three lobes, each containing a large inedible seed. The lobes resemble, and have the consistency of, large peeled garlic cloves. The taste is usually sweet and acidic, but its apple-like texture can vary from very dry and crumbly (salak pondoh from Yogyakarta) to moist and crunchy (salak Bali).
Salak fruit has been cultivated throughout Indonesia and there are at least 30 cultivars, but most of which have an astringent taste and are not sweet. Two popular cultivars are salak pondoh from Yogyakarta province (found in 1980s) and salak Bali from Bali island.
Salak pondoh
Salak pondoh is an important fruit in Yogyakarta province. In the five years to 1999, the annual production of salak pondoh in Yogyakarta doubled to 28,666 tons. The popularity of salak pondoh (compared with other cultivars) among local Indonesian consumers is mainly due to the intensity of its aroma, which can be overripe and sweaty even before full maturation.[1] The salak pondok cultivar has been produced outside the province. However, the distinctive aroma of salak pondoh is not as popular among non-native consumers.[1]
Salak pondoh has three more superior variations, namely pondoh super, pondoh hitam (black pondoh), and pondoh gading (ivory-english term for gading / yellowish-skinned pondoh).
Salak Bali
Salak Bali is commonly sold all over the island of Bali, and is a popular fruit with both locals and tourists. It is also a favourite fruit of the monkeys found in the famous "Monkey Forests", with the animals often stealing fruit from visitors, especially children whom they see as an easier target. The fruit is roughly the size of a large fig, and has a crunchy and moist consistency. The fruit has a starchy 'mouth feel', and a flavour remeniscent of dilute pineapple and lemon juice.
Salak Gula Pasir
The most expensive cultivar of th Bali salak is the 'gula pasir', which is smaller than the normal salak and is the sweetest of all salak. The price in Bali is 15,000rp-30,000rp+ per kilogram (dependent on time of year when more trees are fruiting), against about 12,000rp for regular salak (non-Bali salak are cheaper than this as they are not as sweet). www.wikipedia.com
| Salak | ||||||||||||||||
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 Salak fruit | ||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
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| Salacca zalacca (Gaertn.) Voss |
Ginger
The roots of this one, other than have a distinctive odor also have a spicy taste and quite sharp. Many functions of ginger for our health. In addition to expedite blood circulation, ginger is also working to incite. Boiled ginger and palm sugar. Filter and drink warm-warm. This herb to help us drive out hypothermia, which can attack when we are trapped in the cold air. Ginger is also very good for nausea (because of pregnancy, illness, the influence of drugs, etc.), colic and other digestive disturbances. In addition, ginger can also be used for anti-inflammation drugs, and help overcome cough and sputum thin. How to make ginger beverages similar to turmeric. Just replace the palm sugar with honey. Drinking warm-warm three times a day to help dilute sputum and relieve cough.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
DIVERSE OF CACTUS
This is the type of Cactus diverse. there are many types of cactus that can we find in this world
CACTUS
Cactus comes from the Greek word kaktos. This means that the thorny plants. Linneaus is, botanist who created the classification of plants, the cactus to enter in groups or thorny plants, Cactaceae.
When referring to the history, cactus has been growing about 100 million years ago. Previously cactus form of a body high. Then, around 60 million years later, cactus declared extinct. This occurred due to volcanic eruptions that took drown Continent United States, which Unsurprisingly place to grow.
After vulkanik volcanic activity is stopped, cactus to grow back. However, cactus-generation "Anyar" grow with this form of a short moyangnya from yesterday. Short form of cactus that we often met in the present time.
Generally, the cactus came from the barren plains, such as South America and Mexico. Areas that have low rainfall, with a frequency that is not necessarily. Changes in temperature are also very extreme. There is also the opinion that the cactus is derived from Central and South America, Canada to the North until the Galapagos Islands, in the tropical Pacific Islands and in East India and the Caribbean.
Regional cactus is a diverse life. From the coastal region that leads to the sea, forest wilderness to the mountain range of ice berbalut the Andes Mountains. So, this is not strange when met at the height of cactus 3000 - 4000 m above sea level.
From the fact was, can be included cactus plants which can survive in any field. Cactus easily make adjustments and forms of adaptation in the body. "An example of this adaptation can be clearly seen. When the natural conditions are not suitable, cactus leaf size will be reduced or even not at all out of the leaves. Perakarannya stem be tighten and the storage of water, "said Joesi that since primary school is interested in the cactus.
While in the regions with hot and arid land, cactus adapting to establish how the body skin and thick layer of wax. No lag, hair-growing fuzz or thorn-sharp thorns. Functions clear, reduce the expenditure of the water body.
In the case of the spread, bird players meritorious fruit cactus is considered to sow the seeds of all the places in the world. Although so, people still recognized as a major factor in the distribution of two users of this plant. It can be seen when they perform a migration, cactus never behind in the list of default.
Examples of the most easy, the spread of the cactus in their own country. In Indonesia, cactus entry through the hands of government the Dutch colony. Bule-thing original state windmill is the first to the seeds and cactus. "When the Dutch government, cactus spread to various areas (in the archipelago)," said Joesi.
Habits involve cactus to a new place also made Joesi. "Because my father often switch tasks, cactus collection dibawa.Tapi families often participate because of too many, there is also a deliberately abandoned," he said.
Nepenthes
Brief on the Kantong Semar/Nepenthes
For the plant lover, this is the type of newcomers who are telly. Semar bag, a name that is not foreign to us again, but still many people who have not see in the lansung Crops Karnivora. Nepenthes, the first time are introduced by JP Breyne. Name Nephentes name taken from a glass of wine. In Indonesia, as the bag Semar, with a variety of different areas, pot monkeys (Riau), a bag beruk (Gombe), ketakung (Alaska), the king sorok orderly (West Java). napu head (Dayak Katingan), telep end (Dayak Bakumpai), and cellist begongong (Dayak Tunjung).
Plants included in the group of plants liana (King) or by the twigs in the trees, two channel, and male and female flowers on separate individuals who are different. Life in the soil (terrestrial), there is also attached to the stem or twig other trees (epiphyte). Bag of Nepenthes is a change from the edge of the leaves that have become the trap insects or other small animals. Because of this plant is classified as a plant karnivora (carnivorous plant), other than Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), sundews (Droseraceae) and several other types. Karnivora plants generally live in poor soil life, especially nitrogen, such as the area Kerangas.
Nepenthes belongs to the family and Nepenthaceae class Magnoliopsida generally grow in the rain forest tropik low, mountain forest, peat forest, forest Kerangas, limestone mountains, savanna and the lakeside. Nepenthes spread from northern Australia, Southeast Asia, to southern China. There are about 82 species of Nepenthes in the world and 64 kinds are in the Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan, Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei) is the central distribution of Nepenthes in the world. In accordance with the altitude life, Nepenthes is divided into three groups, namely those living in the lowland (0-500 mdpl (meters from the surface of the sea)), middle plains (500-1000 mdpl) and the high altitude (above 1,000 mdpl). For the low cover of N. gracilis, N. mirabilis, N. reinwardtiana, and N. raflesiana, N. adnata, N. clipeata, N. mapuluensis is a type that can live in the middle. While that can grow well in the high plains covering N. above, N. densiflora, N. dubia, N. ephippiata and N. eymae. Multiplication of Nepenthes plants do slip through the stem, seeds and separate the young. Nepenthes, which generally live in low terrestrial grow in places that sloppy or near water sources in the substrate of acid. Nepenthes also need sunlight intensive with long daylight between 10-12 hours every day throughout the year, with a temperature between 23-31Ć ° C and humidity between 50-70%.
Benefits Kantong Semar
Besides the decorative plant bag Semar also have functions that are not important, including:
1. As Climate Indicator
If in an area or areas in tumbuhi by Nepenthes gymnamphora, kawsan means the level is quite high rainfall, humidity above 75%, even poor soil nutrients
2. Plant medicine
Bag of liquids that are still closed, used as cough medicine.
3. Source drinking water for these
For the mountain climber who thirst bag of Semar N. gymnamphora is a feasible source of drinking water because of its neutral pH (6-7), but the bag still closed, because the bags that have been contaminated with the open to find insects that enter into, pH-3 and its sour taste.
4. As replacement strap
Semar stem from the bag is in use as a replacement strap for fastening the goods.
The threat Kantong Semar
All Nepenthes species is protected, but it exists now is a little more. Habitat that is increasingly narrow in both the karenakan human activities in lansung and lansung or not.
Threats against the Kantong Semar:
1. Without opening Area
2. Area Ponds Open
3. Exploitation of species to commercialize the
Enchantment nephentes now more melejit. Many fans began to collect a variety of plant variety. The nature and uniqueness figure to be the main attraction. For example, the ability of plants memangsa insects. Although commonly found in high altitude, but capable of adapting in some low. Unfortunately, many kantongnya to treat and propagate nephentes tidaklahlah easy. Need the care and handling of the right to appear excellent. If not treated standards, allow the beauty of the bag Semar is located in the habitat that's sweeping the ruler of the mountain remain so.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Plants and flowers can grow in Moon rocks
Researchers with the European Space Agency (ESA) has shown that plants and flowers can be grown on the Moon by demonstrating that Marigold can grow in crushed rock very much like the lunar surface, without the need for plant food.
According to a report by BBC News, the new research was presented at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna.
"We wanted to create a system of water circulation and recovery, which is also the type of system, which in any case, you want to develop when you are on track to produce a primitive form of life support system," said Bernard Foing, a senior researcher with the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.
"So it is also a kind of" technological breadboard 'to maintain a simple life form in an extreme environment, "he added.
The new steps are taken in the experiments reported in the EGU, is to eliminate the need to bring nutrients and soil from Earth.
A group led by Natasha Kozyrovska and Iryna Zaetz from the National Academy of Sciences in Kiev planted Marigold in crushed anorthosite, a type of rock found on Earth, which is very similar to a large part of the lunar surface.
In sirlige anorthosite, the plants have performed very poorly. But adding different types of bacteria made them thrive; the bacteria appeared to draw elements from the rock that the plants are needed, such as potassium.
Dr Foing, who presented the study at the EGU meeting, said there was no reason in principle why the same idea could not bear fruit on the Moon itself. Tools could crush the Lunar rock and add bacteria and seeds.
"However, scientists could see that go further, by selecting plants or bacteria, which are particularly well adapted to Lunar conditions, or even by genetically engineering new strains," he added.
According to Foing, growing plants on the Moon would be useful as a tool to learn how life adapts to the Lunar conditions, and as a practical aid to establishing manned bases. (www.topnews.com)
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Protea cynaroides
Protea cynaroides is sought after for its unique beauty and its excellent vase life. Longmore Flower Estates are
madagascar flowers
A “new” species of palm has been discovered on the island of Madagascar, thanks to its flowering finale.
Botanists around the world are popping the corks over Tahina spectabilis, a gigantic palm tree just discovered in the northwest of Madagascar, even though the plant, blooming its head off, is about to die. ”Details of the flowers and branches suggested it was a species and genus of palm that had never been described before,” reports the Guardian. “Genetic tests on the plant confirmed that it comes from an evolutionary line that was not previously known to exist in Madagascar.”
Actually, plant discoveries have been coming pretty fast and furious on this big island off the east coast of Africa. “Out of the 10,000 plants native to Madagascar, 90% of them are found nowhere else in the world.” The huge palm gave itself away with a spectacular show of flowering.
Whereas most palm trees bloom periodically throughout their lives, this giant shoots the moon. “Once it is fully grown, the tip of the stem branches into hundreds of tiny flowers that sap nutrients from the plant so rapidly that it collapses.” On a stroll with his family, Xavier Metz, the manager of a nearby cashew plantation, spotted the huge flower stalk cascading in the sky. He took pictures and posted them on the web, attracting the attention of the plant experts at Kew Gardens and botanists around the world.
“Ever since we started work on the palms of Madagascar in the 1980s, we have made discovery after discovery,” said John Dransfield, an English scientist. “But to me this is probably the most exciting of them all.” Tahina spectabilis is a thrill for several reasons: its size (some say it grows ”six stories tall”), its novelty, and its dissimilarity from other palms thus far found on the island.
Press releases said that the tree was named for Metz’s daughter Tahina, and that “‘Spectabilis’ means ‘blessed’ or ‘to be protected.’” But we side with the Ethical Paleontologist, who believes that Tahina must mean “blessed” in Malagasy (whether it’s Metz’s daughter’s name or not); and “spectabilis” means, well, “Geez, lookadat!”
Madagascar owes its immense plant diversity primarily to two features: its range of climate zones and its isolation. There are tropical rainforests on the island’s eastern side, while the west and south, “in the rain shadow of the central highlands, are home to tropical dry forests, thorn forests, and deserts and xeric shrublands.” This shoot-the-moon palm tree was discovered in yet another bioregion, the northwest part of the island. Check out the map at right, via the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has a concerted plant research project of its own ongoing in Madagascar.
We find it curious that in the plant world, isolation is so conducive to diversity, whereas in the human social world, those environments that are least isolated tend to be the most diverse (New York City versus North Dakota). Cities seem to attract ethnic complexity, even as they destroy it—melting down distinctions in the longer run. There is a case to be made for geographic isolation in human culture, too. We think of Gee’s Bend, a particle of land cut off by a loop in the Alabama River. The society of Gee’s Bend is not in itself diverse, but its relative isolation fostered an original flowering of its own, rare and spectacular as a six-story palm. ”Gee’s, lookadeese!”(www.humanflowerproject.com)
Saturday, November 22, 2008
ORCHID
Photo identified by C. Archer, National Herbarium, National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
KNIPHOFIA
Also called "red hot poker" the kniphofia (Kniphofia uvaria) is widespread in upland savannas throughout central and Eastern Africa. It is a popular garden plant and grows as a perennial even in temperate regions. It was named after a Dutchman, Johann Hieronymus Kniphof (1704-1763), professor of medicine and a botanical illustrator. There are about 50 species in the genus, restricted to southern Africa.(www.junglephotos.com)
DOLICHOS FLOWER
BULBINE FLOWER
This beautiful flower is most likely Bulbine abyssinica as there are very few pictures on the Internet. It is a perennial, growing two to three meters high. It is a member of the Asphodelaceae family, which also includes Kniphofia. This family's distribution centers on the ancient world, particularly southern Africa, but its biology is poorly known total.
Flowers of Antarctica-All two of them
Only two flowering plants have been able to survive in the iciest continent, but global warming may bring them company.
We have argued that the study "flower customs on seven continents" and today stands, shivering, as our words. Welcome to the small flowering plant Kingdom of Antarctica.
99% of the continent is bound throughout the year. Just a few islands, coastal Sliver and patches of the Antarctic Peninsula can support any plant life at all, and because of extreme cold and dry winds, most growing things are simple mosses and lichens. No trees, no shrubs. Indeed, only two flowering plants throughout the continent: the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia Antarctica) and pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis). And neither one of them is exactly Corsage material.
Researchers in hats and long underwear, which has been examining the continent's ecology see these two plant populations gradually increasing, though. At the same time, Loose Tooth, an ice shelf in the East, is cracking away from the mainland. Que pasa?
A group of researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been looking at these changes, and we have been in contact with one of them, a scientist Jim Behrens. He spent a few months with a team camp on the Amery Ice Shelf studying seismic changes and temperature streams. Check out the pictures of his residence, complete with penguins, waterless morning in the kitchen, and walks across the fields of glacial boulders. (Although most of us wring our hands about global warming, some people are out there struggling with it.)
Jim was funny to think of his work in connection with flowers ... ", As one of the most distinctive aspects of Antarctica is the complete lack of plants. The plant like most things around (native to the area), some dried seaweed along the coast and the occasional lichen. There is a small greenhouse at the station where we grow things like lettuce and cucumbers, cucumber flowers are the only flowers I saw during my stay. "
Without realizing it, for all of us, even the palest-off, is drenched with plantness. Except maybe a limited to an intensive care Ward for many weeks, we never live apart from the green world. But Jim has. He describes the title back from Antarctica:
"After several months of rocks and ice, I could smell Tasmania before I could see it as a week-long boat ride back north came to an end. When it first struck me was the strongest, lustiest flavor I have ever seen, but during a few minutes my olfactory sense had re-calibrated and the smell of vegetation crept into the background again. "(www.humanflowerproject.com
Bees as Desert Plant Pollinators They’re not all honey bees
Ever wonder how plants in the desert get pollinated? Although there aren't a great amount of honeybees in desert areas, there are many species of native bees that live in arid regions.
“Pollen” bees, also called native or solitary bees, are the main pollinators of plants in the world. They tend to be out and active in the early spring, before honey bees (which were imported to the Americas from Europe), and are very efficient pollinators.
Honeybees, which are also great pollinators, are generally raised for honey, while pollination is a byproduct.
In recent years, both native bee species and honeybee populations have been decimated because of the Varroa mite, and because of pesticides and habitat destruction.
Extensive use of pesticides, not only on farmland, but also in suburbia, has had a serious effect on all types of bees. It’s not widely known, but even natural herbicides and botanical pesticides can cause serious harm to bees.
Besides honeybees, and Africanized bees (simply another, albeit more aggressive strain of the domestic honeybee), there are a number of greatly beneficial native bees.
Digger bees, mining bees and sand bees are solitary ground-nesting bees.
Bumblebees, on the other hand, are social creatures.
Sweat bees are small, blackish or brownish bees, although a few species are greenish. As the name implies, they will sometimes land on your arm or neck to sip sweat. They are gentle and will not sting unless you swat them.
Alkali bees are native to the North America west of the Rocky Mountains. They are solitary and are black, with metallic-looking bands of yellow, blue or green circling the abdomen. They pollinate alfalfa, onions, clover, mind and celery.
Leafcutter bees are extraordinarily efficient pollinators. About 150 of them can do the pollination work of 3,000 honeybees.
Carpenter bees are some of the largest bees in the world. They can range in color from blue-black, purple or a greenish sheen. They drill circular holes in wood, and can tend to be annoying because of their tendency to buzz around. They are, however, generally harmless. The females do have a stinger, but they rarely use it.
Certain types of flowers attract all species of bees more than other types of flowers. Flowers which bees find particularly attractive include those that are:
- Full of nectar
- Since bees cannot see the color red, flowers that have petals that are brightly-colored and generally blue or yellow, or a mixture of these two colors.
- Aromatic or minty smell.
- Open in daylight
- Have platforms upon which the bees can land
- Generally symmetrical bilaterally
- Can be tubular with nectar at the base.
Related articles:
the image from www.edupic.net
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Desert Lupine
he desert lupine is native to the Mojave, the desert in California and Nevada and New Mexico, Arizona and parts of Texas.
It does not like higher altitudes, but will grow along the roads in the desert and on slopes, and even the tops of Mesa.
It has a bright blue flower, which can be blue, purple or violet, and it is high on a small upright stems. Petals have a yellow spot, which will switch to red when the plant has been pollinated.
The upper petal is called a banner petal while the two lower them called the keel. They have hair on the bottom and curves up a little.
The bears seed pods, which when ripe will blow up, and the seeds explode everywhere and scatter on the wind.
Blue, 1/2-inch wide blue to purple flowers bloom on slender, up STALKS January through May.
The upper petal (banner) has a yellow spot the changes of reddish after pollination. The two lower petals (keel) is short and long, and are hairy on the bottom edge and curve upward to a slender tip. When mature, seed pods explode, scattering their seeds to the wind.
This flower is called an annual which means that the door completely and seeds to grow new plants.
Desert lupine will completely cover an area where it has been a rainy year, and even when it does not have the lupine will or other compensation, and they will be plentiful in the deserts of the Southwest.
Bees are drawn to the lupine, and it again depends on them to pollinate it. (www.isnature.org)
Pollination by Deception
A male thynnine WAsP (Neozeleboria cryptoides) attempts to mate with the flower of a broad lipped bird Orchid (Chiloglottis trapeziformis). Photo by Rod Peakall. A male thynnine WAsP (Neozeleboria cryptoides) attempts to mate with an Orchid flower (Chiloglottis trapeziformis). Photo Rod Peakall. Pollinator are attracted two plants that appear to provide a reward. Most often, the Pollinator does receive a reward, such as food or shelter for the growing young. But looks (and Scents) can be Deceiving. Some plants attract Pollinator with deceptive cues such that pollination is achieved for the plant but the Pollinator gets nothing in return. Well-known examples of pollination by deception involve Orchid and the Wasp and other insects that pollinate them. Some Orchid flowers attract male insects by mimicking the odore and appearance of female insects. Males attempt to mate with one flower, and then another, transferring pollen among flowers in the process. Though some Orchid flowers closely resemble the appearance of females of the primary pollinating species, odore may be the most important cue. In at least some cases, the odore compound emitted by the Orchid is identical to the female sex pheromone emitted by the Pollinator species (Reference: pollination by Sexual Deception in Australian Terrestrial Orchid, Rod Peakall, Australian National University, 2007). Other Orchid Mimic the Pollinator 'food plants. For example, the southern African Orchid Disperis capensis produces flowers that closely resemble those of another plant, Polygala bracteolata. Bees pollinating P. bracteolata (which does provide a food reward) inadvertently pollinate the look-alike as well. What appears to be another twist Wednesday pollination by deception was documented recently. Malaysian dung Beetles of the genus Onthophagus (Family: Scarabaeidae) are the major Pollinator of Orchidantha inouei, a plant related to ginger, bananas, and bird-of-paradise plants. The flowers of O. inouei appear to attract the Beetles by emitting a dung-like (ie food) odore, but do not provide any food reward or protected space for the Beetle. Pollination of Deception A male thynnine wasp (Neozeleboria cryptoides) attempt to mate with the flower of a broad lipped bird orchid (Chiloglottis trapeziformis). Photo by Rod Peakall. A male thynnine wasp (Neozeleboria cryptoides) attempt to mate with an orchid flower (Chiloglottis trapeziformis). Photo Rod Peakall. Pollinators are attracted to plants that seem to offer a reward. Usually, the pollinator not receive a reward, such as food or shelter for the cultivation of young people. But look (and odors) can be deceiving. Some plants attract pollinators with misleading cues such that pollination is achieved for the plant, but the pollinator gets nothing in return. Well-known examples of pollination by deception involving orchids and wasps and other insects that pollinate them. Some orchid flowers attract male insects by mimicking the smell and appearance of female insects. Males try to mate with a flower, and then another, the transfer of pollen among flowers in the process. Although some orchid flowers closely resemble the presence of females of the primary pollinating species, odors may be the main headline. At least in some cases, the odor compound emitted by the orchid is identical to the female sex pheromone emitted by pollinator species (Reference: pollination by sexual Deception in Australian Terrestrial Orchids, Rod Peakall, Australian National University, 2007). Other orchids mimic the pollinators' food plants. For example, the South African orchid Disperis capensis produces flowers that closely resemble those of another plant, Polygala bracteolata. Bees pollinating P. bracteolata (giving a food reward) inadvertently pollinate the look-alike as well. What seems to be another twist on pollination by deception was proved recently. Malaysian fertilizer beetles of the genus Onthophagus (Family: Scarabaeidae) is the most important pollinators of Orchidantha inouei, a plant related to ginger, bananas, and bird-of-paradise plants. The flowers of O. inouei seem to attract the beetles, which emits a dung-like (ie food) smell, but do not provide any food reward or protected space for the beetle. from www.nbii.gov |
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Effect of Water Stress on Floral Characters, Pollination and Seed Set in White Clover (Trifolium repens L.)
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3EB Wales, UK
White clover plants were subjected to either short-term developing water stress or long-term stable levels of water deficit. The hort-term stress reduced plant water status to about –2·0 MPa over 16 d. The long-term stress was less severe, but was sustained for several weeks. Long-term water stress promoted the production of inflorescences. However, water stress also increased floret abortion and the premature death of whole flower heads. The number of ovules per floret was decreased by water stress.
The most striking effect of both long- and short-term water deficit was to reduce pollen viability measured with the fluorochromatic assay. This was not an artefact of assay conditions. The pollen from water-stressed flower heads was not reversibly dehydrated; it did not score at similar viability to controls after incubation in conditions which hydrate pollen. In addition, the pollen from water-stressed plants lost viability more rapidly than pollen from well-watered plants after removal from the flower head.
The consequences of reduced pollen viability on seed set were investigated by hand-crossing within and between groups of plants maintained for several weeks at three levels of water supply. Flower heads pollinated with pollen from water-stressed plants set fewer seeds per floret than those pollinated with control pollen.
taken from www.jxb.oxfordjournals.org
Pollinator Syndrome
Wind and water pollination
Ponderosa pine branch tip shows needles and young cones.
Grass flower
Thumbnail an information sheet published by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, forbidden! Federal Republic of noxious weeds: The Water Park.
Forbidden! Federal Republic of harmful Weeds: The Aquatics (PDF)
Many flowers are pollinated without the help of animals (insects, birds or mammals). Here are a few examples.
Wind pollination
Most conifers and about 12% of the world's flowering plants are wind-pollinated. They include grasses and their cultivated cousins, the cereal crops, many trees; the notorious allergens ragweeds; and others. All release billions of pollen grains in the air, so a lucky few will hit their targets.
Wind-pollinated flowers are typically:
* No bright colors, special smell, or nectar
* Small
* Most have no petals
* Strain and stigma exposed to air currents
* Large amount of pollen
* Pollen smooth, bright, light airborne
* Stigma feathery to catch pollen from the wind
* May have staminate and pistillate flower, can monoecious or dioecious
* Normally, single-seeded fruit, such as oak, grass, birch, poplar, hazelnut, dock, cat-tail, plantain, and Papyrus
Water-pollination
Pollen can also float on the water's surface sliding until it contacts flowers. This is called surface hydrophily and are relatively rare. This water-assisted pollination occurs in waterweeds and pondweeds. In very few cases, pollen travels underwater use.
Many of the water-pollinated plants has become invasive throughout the United States. To learn more, visit these invasive species websites:
* U. S. Forest Service Invasive Species Program
* National Invasive Species Information Center
Photo by T. Barnes, University of
Kentucky.
Pollination by insect
What is pollination?
Pollination occurs when pollen lands on the stigma of a plant. Then goes down to the ovary, and it is here that the ovules are fertilized. Most plants have flowers with male and female parts present in each flower. Most plants depend on insects as bees, to take the pollen from the anthers to the stigma.
Pollination by insects
Felt flower diagramAn insect can pollinate flowers accident, when pollen is rubbed off the body of insects. Plants can produce nectar in the flowers, a sugary liquid, as many insects living on. Pollen is a useful source of protein for some insects such as bees. Insects attracted to the flower of fragrance, color and nectar. They bear the pollen from flower to flower, while collecting nectar and pollen for themselves. After pollination, the plant produces a seed that grows mostly sheltered inside the plants' ovaries.
Click on the image above to see all the different parts of a flower.
Without insects for pollination
It is not always the insects that pollinate the flowers, plants can use wind, birds and even bats as pollinators! With wind-pollinated plants - such as grasses, grains and some trees - the flowers are very simple, with no bright colors or pleasant smells as they do not need to attract the insects. These plants have both male and female reproductive parts, and they do a lot of pollen. Therefore, a pollen allergy called 'hay fever'.
Interesting facts
* Bee pollinating a flower Most plants grow flowers annually, but some take much longer. Agave, or century plant grows only one flower after many years and then dies! Even more astonishing is a rare plant called Puya raimondii from the Andes in South America, and it does not grow a flower until it is 150 years old - and after it dies too.
* The smallest flowering plant in the world believed to be a floating duckweed called common watermeal. Its leaves are only 1 mm across!
* Bamboo flowering plants have great habits. There are many different kinds of bamboo, and they have different flowering cycles. A few flower every year, but most wait much longer. What is amazing is that all the bamboo of the same species will flower at exactly the same time they are growing! No one knows how they manage to do so.
* The flowers on the European edelweiss covered with a thick layer of hair to protect them from the hot sun and drying winds.
* The flowers from the white chalk, which can grow in Britain, are toxic to bees. They are often on the ground under the trees.
* Hummingbirds hover in front of flowers, while they collect nectar. They spend so much energy to do this, it would be like you need to eat 150kg of hamburgers every day!
* Hummingbirds use up lots of energy floating in front flowersThe white flower in the Amazon water lily is the size of a football and turning purple, after being pollinated.
Monday, November 17, 2008
F L A M A B O Y N
When this plant came from (Madagascar. ever thought it?), Has it been Javanese streets' fence 'since 1950's, and nailed down the love songs of every generation of Indonesians.
Flamboyant trees is very high, they exceed the height of a London double-decker buses (which we imported to be put as passenger buses in Solo, Central Java, in 1985).
The main disadvantage of this plant is that it becomes completely bald half of the year. But even if it is still unable to get sold anyway. Who would buy a 15-foot tree?
Jasmine
MLATHI | Indonesian name: melati
Jasmine is for sale. Not as a potted plant, but as a mass plucked the petals or buds. This is the main material for a traditional Javanese wedding accessories (click here to see what it is).
A lot of Javanese and Indonesian 'classic' songs is about this flower because of its connotation with weddings.
None sell as lidah buaya to anybody PLANT Haven in Indonesia.
Crocodile's Tongue
ILAT BĆYĆ | Indonesian name: lidah buaya
I really doubt that even my ancestors have ever seen the things for real, but this plant has been known as' crocodile's tongue "in both its Javanese and Indonesian names.
Whether it truly resembles a crocodile's tongue or not, each leaf of this plant, you might have known as Aloe vera has been used by the Javanese as an ingredient of homemade shampoo since the 1500's. Then in 1960 came the Unilever, and the thing has been cultivated for factories, though the function remains the same.
No one sells a lidah buaya to anyone's garden plants in Indonesia.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
MAWAR
The picture above is the most common type of roses that are planted in Java and Indonesia.
As I have said virtually everywhere else around this site, the Javanese and Indonesian peoples roses has never been something romantic, and we never think of them as being related to the elusive concept called 'beauty'. So if an Indonesian woman says she like Candlelight and roses and diamonds, only the last item is true. Light is nothing romantic in real Indonesians either are only useful when the notorious Indonesian Electric Company blowing up his job - that is, when there is no electricity at home because of chronic problems.  In real life, red and white roses in Indonesia has grown and for their leaves that are plucked and sold in traditional markets to people on their way to the cemetery. | ||
DESERT SUNFLOWER
Range Sonoran and Mojave desert in the southeastern California to southwest Utah and south to Arizona and northwestern Mexico. Habitat Sandy, barren desert flats and roadsides below 3000 feet. Flowers Two-inch golden-yellow flower heads appear at the ends of branches. Flowers are composed of 10 to 20 elongated rays around the golden disc. Blooms February through May and sometimes humid summers, again in October and November. Description Desert Sunflower is a slender, hairy plant that grows 1 to 3 meters high. The austere, gray-green, oval, leaves grow to 3 inches long and has teeth margins. "Geraea" is derived from the Greek word for "old man" - "geraios" - whereas the white hair on the seed-like, flat fruit. | |
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TULIP
The species are perennials from bulbs, the tunicate bulbs are often produced at the ends of stolon and covered with glabrous to variously hairy papery coverings. The species include short low-growing plants with high upright plants that grow from 10 to 70 centimeters (4-27 in) tall. They can even grow in the cold and snow in winter. Plants are typically 2 to 6 leaves, with some species, which has up to 12 sheets. The cauline leaves are strap-shaped, waxy-coated, usually light to medium green and alternately arranged. Blades are somewhat fleshy and linear to oblong shape.
The large flowers are produced in the countryside or subscapose stalks usually lack bracts. Stems have no leaves to a few magazines, with large species, which has some leaves and smaller species have none. Typical species has a flower per stem, but a few species have up to four flowers. The colorful and attractive cup-shaped flowers have three leaves, three sepals, which usually called tepals because they are almost identical. The six petaloid tepals are often marked near the bases with darker markings. The flowers have six basifixed, separates the stock with filaments shorter than tepals and stigma are districtly 3-lobed. Ovary is superior to three chambers. 3 angled fruits are leathery textured capsules, elliptical to subglobose in the form, which contains numerous flat disc-shaped seeds in two rows per locul.
Although tulips are associated with Holland, both flower and its name is derived in the Ottoman Empire. The tulip, or Lale (from the Persian ŁŲ§ŁŁ, lĆ¢leh) as it is known in Turkey, is a flower indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and other parts of Central Asia. Having been described in a letter from the Dutch Ambassador to Turkey in the 16th century, Ogier Ghiselin the Busbecq, who also was a big flower species enthusiast, tulips were brought to Europe in the 16th century, the word tulip, which earlier in English appeared in such forms as Tulipa or tulipant, entered the language in the form of French tulip and its outmoded form of tulip or by means of modern Latin Tulipa, from Ottoman Turkish tĆ¼lbend, "muslin, gauze." (The English word Turban, first recorded in English in the 16th century, can also be traced to the Ottoman Turkish tĆ¼lbend.)
Tulips come from mountainous areas with temperate climate and the need for a period of cool dormancy. They do best in climates with long cool springs and early summers, but they are often grown as spring blooming annual plantings in warmer areas in the world. The bulbs are typically planted in late summer and fall, usually 10 to 20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches) deep, depending on the type planted in well-draining soil. In parts of the world who do not have long cool springs and early summers, the bulbs are often planted up to 12 inches deep, this gives some protection from the heat of summer and tends to force the plants to regenerate one large bulb each year instead of many small businesses do not thrive. This can extend the usefulness of plants in warmer areas for a few years, but does not prevent the degradation of the bulb size and eventual death of plants.
Tulips can be propagated by offsets, seeds or micro propagation [3]. Steps and tissue culture techniques using asexual propagation, they are used to produce genetic clones of the parent plant, which maintains cultivar integrity. Seed raised plants show greater variation, and seeds are most often used to disseminate species and subspecies or used to create new hybrids. Many tulip species can cross pollinate with each other when the wild tulip populations overlap with other species or subspecies, they often hybridize and produce populations of ready-mixed concrete. Most tulip cultivars are complex hybrids and sterile; these plants that produce seeds produce offspring very different from the parents.
In horticulture, tulips are divided into fifteen groups mainly based on the morphology of the flower and plant size. [4]
* Single early group - with cup-shaped single flowers, no larger than 8 cm across (3 inches). The Bloom early to mid season. Growing 15 to 45 inches tall.
* Double early group - with fully double flowers, bowl-shaped to 8 cm across. Plants typically grow from 30-40cm high.
* Triumph Group - single cup-shaped flowers up to 6cm long. Plants grow 35-60cm high and bloom mid to late season.
* Darwin hybrid group - single flowers are ovoid in shape and up to 8 cm long. Plants grow 50-70cm high and bloom mid to late season. This group should not be confused with older Darwin tulips - which belongs in the Late Group below.
* Single late group - cup or trophy-shaded flowers up to 8 cm long, some plants produce multi-flowering stems. Plants grow 45-75cm high and bloom in late season.
Tulip growers are using offsets to produce salable plants need a year or more of growth before the plants are large enough to flower; tulips grown from seeds often require five to eight years of growth before the plants are flowering size. Commercial growers harvest bulbs in late summer and grade them in sizes, onion large enough to flower is sorted and sold, while smaller bulbs are sorted into sizes and replanted. Holland is the largest producer of commercially sold plants, which produce as many as 3 billion bulbs a year.
EKOR KUCING
Somehow the Javanese still refer to this plant in Indonesia. The name means "the cat's tail."
The "tail" is impressive, botanically speaking. It is 25 inches long, bushy and cats as true "queues as long as it's not that cats Indonesian you mean. The shrub itself, with hundreds of deep red-tails "is more than 5 feet tall.
KOCOPIRING
| Indonesian name: kacapiring
The name means "China", as in dining plates and bowls, or, if anglicized literally, "glass". In some places it as "Gardenia". This plant was probably under the charge of Javanese be downloaded by Chinese ships 1200's. It is more beautiful than roses, and the smell is bigger, too, and certainly more - you can sniff it out one miles away, or so it seems.  Real kacapiring is a tree. A tall, bushy tree, whose height is approximately the same as that of everyone in the Chicago Bulls, with the exception of the trainer. But this plant is not in connection with financial things. | ||
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Amorous wasps 'seduced' by orchids
Orchids that mimic women wasps May not only wasting time men they attract wasps in their dissemination of pollen - they also appeal to lose value in semen, Sydney researchers have found.
And flowers benefit twice - get help in their own reproduction, and perhaps indirectly producing more men pollinators in the process.
Some of the more exotic orchids are known to have evolved their convoluted forms to attract insects, which unwittingly collect pollen and transfer as they try to mate with flowers.
"The effect of deception on pollinators was considered negligible, but we show that pollinators May suffer significant costs," Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney and his colleagues reported.
"The insect pollinators language Australian orchids (Cryptostylis species) ejaculate often copious and waste sperm," they wrote in a report of The American Naturalist.
It is not safe for Wasps, who suffered May over a disadvantage. "Men prefer pollinators may orchids real women, prematurely terminated a copulation with a real women to visit an orchid, or may not be able to find women among the latter false signals of orchids," wrote researchers .
"Undoubtedly, the production of semen, ejaculate, or seminal fluid is expensive for many animals. The energy demand of sperm production can lead to a reduction in body mass, a life reduced lifespan limited or sperm production, "they added.
But this arms race sexual trickery operates in more than one way of the flower. "We also show that orchid species to cause such extreme behaviour of pollinators have the highest pollination success," they added.
"How can deception persist, given the costs of pollination?"
They discovered that the wasps who attend these flowers are haplodiploid species. Like bees, ants and other species, the offspring produced by sexual unions are women, while females may also produce men asexual.
"Therefore, deprived of insects mating by deception orchid could still produce male offspring, which May or improve pollination of orchids," wrote the researchers.
Ms. Gaskett the team examined the flowers after visiting wasps and found the men not fool finally learn their lesson.
"With experience, men Lissopimpla excelsa wasps are less likely to copulate with pollination and sexually Cryptostylis orchids misleading," they wrote.
Those clever flowers
Flowers were found to have several advantages in their, um, sleeves when it comes to attract pollinators, according to two reports that we spied today.
First, they wave at passing insects to attract their attention (BBC).
John Warren of the University of Aberystwyth have been inspired by watching flowers waving in the wind at his daughter's birthday, and wondered why they risk having their slender stems broken by these movements. Not finding much in the literature, he began to find an answer.
In a study of 300 specially cultivated flowers of different lengths rod-high corrugated flowers attracted more pollinators, they found (Journal of Evolutionary Biology). Unfortunately, history does not say how much it is not mentioned in the summary freely available… if the abstract does add that the insects were moving flowers as long as it was on. (If only Wordsworth knew there was a reason for its host of daffodils "float and dance in the wind" his poem might have been different).
Secondly, researchers have found just how effective orchids may mimic female wasps, as a means to attract men wasps to collect their pollen (Reuters). Not only do they attract boys (which was already known), but they also seem to excite enough to cause ejaculation (the release of "copious sperm" according to the report). Obviously, this is a waste of time and energy for the wasps, but apparently it helps orchids, in a certain way - I think more and more by rigid? "species of orchids cause such extreme behaviour of pollinators have the greatest success of pollination, "they report in The American Naturalist.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Dendrobium chryseum
It is the small family Dai orchids. It grows on rocks and trees from 540 to 2,700 meters above sea level and flowers from April to June.
The plant stem can be used to make medicine.
Dendrobium aphyllum
Dendrobium species of China are among the most tolerant species of orchids in the world. They can grow in full sun, do not have water for half a year, and even tolerate moderate frost. No wonder they are difficult as the cactus.
What else can we expect from Orchids? Of course, beautiful flowers!
Well, there you will not be disappointed at all. Some even excel in structure such as the extraordinary beautiful "bamboo orchid" Dendrobium hancockii that gives you both, the eyes of a bamboo and honey intense fragrance of a flower of gold.
New Study: Flowers Attract Insects with Movement
The flowers are known for attracting insect pollinators, through a variety of means, perfumes and attractive to nectar colors and shapes. According to a new study in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, scientists can now add a mechanism unlikely the list: the movement. Researchers at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales observed coastal 300 flowers, noting stem length, the range of swinging distance, how often and for how long they were visited by insects, and the number seeds were produced in the end.
These flowers with long slender stems proved to be most attractive to insects and produces most of the seeds. Researchers have concluded their proposals to move the most visible among others. There are practical limits, however. These flower stems too terribly long moved to enable insects to make a landing stable and are generally avoided. Similarly, the flowers with shorter stalks are less visited because they were difficult to differentiate from the crowd.
Pollination
Orchids have developed highly specialized systems pollination and therefore likely to be pollinated are often scarce. That is why flowers of orchids are generally very receptive to long periods and why most orchids provide pollen in a single mass, whenever succeeds pollination of thousands of eggs can be fertilized.
Pollinators are often visually attracted by the shape and colors of the labellum. The flowers produce attractive May odors. Although the absence in most species, May nectar produced in a fork (8) labellum, on the verge of sepals or in the septum of the ovary, the most typical position among the Asparagales.
In orchids that produce pollinia, pollination happens as a variant of what follows. When the pollinator entry into the flower, it affects a viscidium, which quickly sticks to his body, usually on the head or abdomen. While leaving the flower, he pulls the pollinium of anthers, as it is connected to the viscidium by the caudicle or stipe. The caudicle then turns and the pollinium is moved forward and down. When pollinators entering a flower of the same species, pollinium took this position it will stick to the stigma of the second flower, just below the rostellum, pollination. Holders of orchids May be able to replicate the process with a pencil or a similar device.
Ophrys apifera is on the verge of self-pollination
Ophrys apifera is on the verge of self-pollination
Some orchids mainly or wholly rely on self-pollination, especially in cold regions where pollinators are particularly scarce. The caudicles May dry up if the flower has not been visited by a pollinator and Pollina then fall directly on the stigma. Otherwise, the anther May turn and then enter the stigma cavity of the flower (as in Holcoglossum amesianum).
The labellum of the Cypripedioideae is shaped pocket and a function of access to trap insects. The only exit led to anther that the deposit pollen on the visitor.
In some orchids very specialized, like the kind Ophrys Eurasian, the labellum is adapted to have a color, shape and odor that attracts insects males mimic a receptive female. The pollination happens as the insect attempts to mate with flowers.
Many neotropical orchids are pollinated by bees male orchid, which visit flowers to collect volatile chemicals they need to synthesize pheromonal attractive. Each type of orchid pollinia place on another part of the body of another species of bee, so as to apply a good cross-pollination.
An underground orchid in Australia, Rhizanthella slateri, ever see the light of day and depends on ants and other insects land for pollination.
Catasetum, a kind briefly discussed Darwin actually launches its viscous pollinia with explosive force when an insect touches a seta.
After pollination sepals and petals wilt and disappear, but they generally remain committed to the ovary.
Flowers "wave" of insects to attract their attention, scientists have discovered.
Flowers "wave" of insects to attract their attention, scientists have discovered. The finding helps explain why many flowers waft in the breeze, and reveals something unknown hitherto used to attract pollinators. The scientists made the discovery by studying wildflowers common known as sea campion on the Welsh coast. Mobile flowers are most often visited by insects and produce more seeds, they report in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Moving flowers also attract a wider variety of insect species that flowers more static. For years, biologists have known that the flowers use striking colours, perfumes, developed shaped petals and nectar to attract pollinating insects like bees and flies. Yet, nobody had ever seriously considered if wafting in the wind acted as a similar signal.
Seaside inspiration "I was on the beach watching the flowers wave in the wind at my daughter's birthday, and I wondered why they have stems and may have damaged during a presentation of these habitats" said John Warren of the University of Aberystwyth.
He therefore sought that research has already been done, and we found very few answers. "The only reference I found the movement to attract pollinators said it was unlikely to be significant because the insects are not good at detecting movement, which is clearly rubbish." To learn more, Dr. Warren and James Penri experienced colleague on Wednesday Campion (Silene maritima) more and more on an exposed coast in a site of special scientific interest in Cardigan Bay in west Wales.
They observed 300 specially developed flowers of different lengths of stem, recording how much each flower moved the wind, how often it has been visited by insects and for how long and how many seeds it has to produce.
