Today, most people should not be surprised if we talk about the sex of plants. As we all know, plants and animals are also male and female.
However, for about two thousand years, from the time people began to look at plants with an epistemic eye to the end of the seventeenth century, many botanists have been trying to deny this fact. Humans have always believed that plants are "pure" beings in nature and can reproduce without sex.
This is not the case, plants are actually sexual and loving beings. Until modern times, the secrets of plant reproduction have been completely revealed, and in the long process of evolution, they have really exhausted their abilities in order to survive.
The latest work of French biology researcher and natural science best-selling author För Dou gai, "The Secret Life of Plants", introduces us to the secrets and tricks of various plant reproduction. In his book, Fowler Dougai popularized the incredible ways in which plants reproduce and existed, subverted our understanding of plants, and re-taught us a biology lesson.
Sweet words of Ethiopia
Many of the older plants are wind-borne plants, such as coniferous trees, but insect-borne pollination, which appeared later, is not necessarily more advanced than wind-media, and nettle is a good example. Nettle's nectar has a good smell, so it looks like nettle, like its ancestors, wants to attract insect pollination, but it is somewhat surprising that nettle's first choice is to pollinate through the wind.
Similarly, there are other plants whose ancestors were obviously insect-borne plants, but slowly began to try to use the wind to spread pollen. They become less and less dependent on petals and glands, and the structures necessary to produce nectar become increasingly irrelevant or even useless. Instead, structures that attract Ethiopia (the wind god of ancient Greek mythology) slowly emerged, such as spike-like inflorescences growing on male flowers so that winds in all directions could take pollen away. The stamens of grasses are no longer hidden in a corolla like a hole, but have long, thin ends like grains, swaying freely in the wind. At the same time, the pistils of these plants are also actively adapting to new pollination methods, each giving creative answers to the question of how to successfully capture pollen in the air. Hazel trees and elms, for example, grow lush red stigmas, brightly colored stigmas like dexterous tentacles that can immediately capture the pollen blown around them.
Between flowers and insects remains
Sustainable win-win partnerships
For most flowering plants, the first thing to do to find a suitable partner is to attract insects that can act as pollinators. Bright colors and attractive aromas are good choices for attracting insects to stay on their own flowers, stick pollen to them, and pass them on to other plants.
However, it is not enough to attract insects through these two points. In order to ensure that the insects will obey their own words, there is a sustainable and win-win partnership between the flower and the insect. Flowers will be grateful that insects can find another half for themselves, and send sweet nectar with their hands, which is especially important for the growth of insects, especially larvae. Scarab beetles, butterflies, and flies are all heroic pollinators, but unfortunately, most of their adult life is spent mating, laying eggs, and ultimately facing death. So for insect-borne plants, these insects are not the best choice for pollination. Bees, on the other hand, are loyal allies of insect-borne flowers, because they have to take care of their offspring on the one hand, and on the other hand, they use flowers to brew their own food, honey. Bees consume some nectar and pollen, but at the same time, they take on cupid's responsibilities and work for the multiplication of thousands of plants.
Flowers not only attract pollinators with their color and smell, but also quietly guide insects who are too shy to be overwhelmed because they are falling on the flowers for the first time. There will be a white route on the petals of the prairie old stork grass, guiding the insect into the center of the flower, finding the nectar, in the process, the insect's wings will be more or less glued to the precious pollen of the stamens; the flowers of the alpine white-headed mangos and the strawberry flower, the outer petals are white, and the middle flower bud is yellow, this change in color shade will highlight the flower bud, allowing the insect to fly to the middle of the flower without hesitation.
The flowers of horse chestnut trees come in different colors, generally yellow, orange and pink. Why do flowers of the same plant have three colors? This is actually the horse chestnut flower's way of telling the bees and bumblebees whether they are welcome at this moment. Those flowers that have nectar and are waiting to be pollinated take on a yellow color, a color that insects can't resist. When pollination is over, the flowers slowly turn red because the bees and bumblebees can't see the red, so the flowers disappear from their eyes.
Plants in the Asteraceae family play an important role in nature, including the most common daisies, sunflowers and thistles. It has a total of 13,000 species worldwide, most of which are herbaceous, but also some woody and vine plants. When we look at their flowers, they look like a flower, but they are actually dozens of small flowers clinging to each other. They chose to gather together to attract the attention of insects. Because if each small flower grows independently, they will not be very attractive to insects, but if they are gathered together inflorescences like this, they will form a bright yellow flag that the insects cannot refuse. So whenever an insect passes by, it spreads not just the pollen of a single flower, but dozens of small flowers.
Some plants are very picky when it comes to choosing pollinators, and the flowers of the European golden lotus are like a real safe, and only six insects know the password to open the safe. These lucky ones are from the genus Shorthorn Flower Fly, and only they know how to drill into the sepals of the European golden lotus and find the center of the flower. And no matter how hard other insects try, they can only return with disappointment. The short-horned flower fly that has worked so hard to pollinate the European golden lotus will naturally get a considerable "reward". Female short-horned flower flies lay eggs on the heart of the flower, and when the larvae are hatched, they will eat the seeds of the flower and grow. This symbiotic relationship also carries a certain risk for the European golden lotus, the more short-horned flower flies there are, the greater the chance of pollination, but at the same time the more insects parasitize the flowers. The partnership between the two was formed millions of years ago and continues to this day, and is a model of relative balance and harmonious symbiosis in nature.
What's even more interesting is that there is still a division of labor between the flowers of some plants. For example, the flowers of musk orchid, some of which are particularly delicate but do not bear fruit, may not even have nectar, these flowers are specially used to attract insects. They attract insects that can pollinate, expecting them to climb along the stems to their light brown companions. These flowers, which don't look so attractive, are the backbone of reproduction, and they usually have sweet nectar on them.
Do whatever it takes to pollinate
In order to reproduce, the giant konjac can be called "unscrupulous", and it even has a dexterous system to trick insects into satisfying all their needs. Giant seaweeds can quickly emit a smell of carrion to attract flies, and if they are not careful, the flies enter a carefully designed chamber. Giant seaweeds capture them with their own huge flowers, two thick rows of long hairs and smooth outer walls that prevent insects from finding an outlet, and the pistils secrete a liquid that sticks to the flies. By the next morning, it's time for the stamens to appear, which will fill the fly's body with pollen, and when it's done, the long hairs on the flowers will retract and let the fly leave. Soon, the "unrepentant" fly will patronize another giant potato, and everything will repeat itself. At this time, when the "detained" fly licks the stigma of the pistil, the pollen it had previously stuck to the body will smoothly fall on the pistil of the flower, and the pollination task will be completed.
Dyewood does not harm any insect during the process of reproduction, and it will even dedicate its noble yellow petals to this "love game". This flower attracts large wild bees, and nectar can only be found by rushing into the entrance. In the process of intense friction, the wild bees' bodies are covered with pollen.
There are also some plants that rely on insect pollination, which actually do not bring any benefits to insects, but use similar deception to attract their own pollinators. Meilan, for example, is an example. It sets a simple trap that fools the male into thinking it's going to be a wonderful date. Males are the first to fly out of the hives in the spring, while females are relatively late. Orchids take advantage of this, and their flowers look like female bees, making many males stay here. And the flowers of the red orchid not only look like female bees, but can even emit a similar smell to female bees. The hungry male is easily deceived and tries to mate with the orchid's lip flap so that the male is glued to two pollen blocks, which are pollen-wrapped balls, at which point the pollen falls off and sticks to the male bee, who has to leave in frustration after mating failure. When it was fooled again and stayed on another orchid, it helped the orchid to achieve pollination.
(To be continued)