Blogger Liang Nanlian, documentary enthusiast, with words to record the interesting and peculiar life stories of nature, this series of interesting articles on plants are updated from time to time, welcome to pay attention!
Plants and human life are closely related, but we do not know much about the plant friends around us, in fact, the secrets of plants are amazing, their adaptability to the environment and survival skills are more powerful than we know, and the survival skills displayed by plants are often breathtaking! Some plants evolve some wonderful methods and strategies when they breed their offspring! Today, let's talk about the plant that gives pollinators a set of plants during pollination - flower pillar grass!
The image comes from the Internet
1. Actively attack pollinators' peduncles!
Spring meadows, full of greenery, flowers, full of flowers of plants swaying with the wind, the drifting aroma attracts butterflies to dance, many plants with seductive aromas and sweet nectar to entertain these "little couriers", "little couriers" in the nectar payment at the same time to help the plant matchmaking complete pollination, but in this countless seemingly harmonious collective wedding scene is mixed with some discordant factors!
An obese wasp flew towards a plant with small pink flowers, just fell on it, "snapped", got a sound, the hammer under the flower slammed down on the wasp with lightning speed, and the poor wasp did not have time to taste the nectar and pollen, it was struck by the thunder of the flower, and the frightened wasp fled in panic! This plant that actively attacks wasps is the Flower Pillar Grass!
The image comes from online intrusion and deletion
The pollination mechanism of the flower pillar grass is rough and efficient!
It is a small herb that grows in the tropics, there are about 300 varieties, different varieties of plant height and shape are very different, but their flowers have a common feature, that is, they can actively attack pollinators, and the action of flower pillar grass to attack insects comes from the exquisite flower structure!
The petals of the flower pillar grass are opposite, symmetrical on both sides, flattened and unfolded, like butterflies, pistils and flower pillars merge into zygomatic columns, the stigma is a disc-like structure, and bends down on the outside of the petals, the zygomatic pillars that store powerful potential energy are ready to be fired at any time, and the trigger switch is the pollinator himself, when the insects land on the flowers in search of nectar, the zygote columns that have been prepared will "smash" the pollen-filled "discs" on the insects at lightning speed, and the frightened insects will immediately fly away! The zygotes that unleash their potential energy will return again, ready to continue attacking the other pollinators!
Botanists nickname these plants with high-speed motor organs trigger plants, and they have a more appropriate name - trigger plants! There are many such plants, peduncules, flytraps, raccoons and much more!
The image comes from online intrusion and deletion
3. Conclusion!
The mutually beneficial and win-win relationship between plants and insects in the pollination process is dominated by plants, but plants need to consume a lot of energy to produce nectar and pollen, so the flower pillar grasses have opportunistic ideas, they are not passively waiting for pollinators to leave on their own but take the initiative to drive them away, driving them away, while reducing nectar consumption and accelerating the spread efficiency of pollen!
What's even more wonderful is that they design the switch that triggers the firing action of the flower column as the insect itself, in order to make the insect land accurately at the specified position, the petals are stretched into a plane, and the bottom pigment ring provides accurate navigation for the insect landing site, avoiding the flower pillar hitting the insect because of the deviation of the stay position and causing the waste of pollen!
In fact, the pollination method of flower pillar grass can only be regarded as a little clever in the plant world, compared to those plants that use bad means such as seduction, imprisonment and deception, this behavior is only cheating at most! In the plant family, there are also some plants that use cunning and strange means to protect themselves and survive better! In the next issue of Plant Fun, we'll talk about this weird and clever plant, passionflower!