Flowers absolutely need insects, and in particular bees, so that pollination is well assured. Without their intervention, pollen from the stamens of a cherry tree, for example, would have every chance of landing elsewhere than on the pistil. Bees which have long hairs on their bodies and which continually fly from flower to flower are therefore very popular with flowers. They do everything to attract them…
Sage, a “deadening” plant
To trap foraging bees, sage has a perfectly developed technique: it practically knocks them out by spraying them with pollen !
When a forager appears in front of this very common blue flower (it is easily recognizable thanks to its sickle-shaped upper petal), she does not know what awaits her. As soon as it lands and begins to insert its head inside the flower, the bee involuntarily pushes on a sort of small lever which immediately activates thestamen located above.
This part of the flower relaxes and lightly hits the bee’s back. Without realizing it, there she is covered in pollen dust. All he has to do is transport this sexual substance to another sage and that’s it…
There is something for everyone in this story. The flower allowed pollen to escape to form seeds. As for the bee, it returns to the hive with small provisions of this same pollen intended for feeding the brood (the young bees which also feed on honey).
The bee also two important assets in favor of pollination:
- she always visits the same species during the same outing;
- she “visits” more than a thousand flowers during a single outing…
Do the math with the 50 to 80,000 bees populating a hive…
A particularly attractive orchid
In nature, anything goes to attract pollinating insects. We saw that there were “catapult” flowers. Others produce tantalizing aromas. Still others even go so far as to imitate the genitals of females.
Certain orchids, which do not have a nectar-producing secretion, are thus pollinated by solitary wasps, each species being subservient to a particular type of orchid. To attract the male, the orchid has a corolla resembling a female wasp point for point. The male doesn’t hesitate for a second. It “mates” in a way with the flower by plunging its abdomen into this corolla so beautiful that one could be mistaken.
During this visit, the orchid’s pollen adheres to the wasp’s abdomen. By moving more vigorously, it will bring it into contact with the pistil of the flower. The scientists who made these observations also noted that the orchid’s corolla gave off an odor very similar to that of the female wasp. In short, even when looking very closely, our poor male sees nothing but fire…
All these mechanisms are studied in the laboratory. Scientists indeed hope to artificially reconstitute the perfumes, pheromones, attractive substances which act on pollinating insects, male or female. If we succeeded, it would ensure directed pollination. Clearly, we could effectively control the production of seeds, and therefore fruits.