Angiosperm long-petaled orchid
Paphiopedilum dianthum
Long-petaled orchid, belonging to the angiosperm, monocotyledonous plants, microcepters, orchids, and orchids. It grows mostly on tree trunks or rocks on forest edges or sparse forests, and is known to be distributed in Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. The video was taken in Xishuangbanna.
The genus is famous among orchids and is highly sought after for its beautiful flowers, special shape, and difficulty in cultivation. At the beginning of the 19th century, the beautiful hood was officially described, which was also the first to be described. It was not until 1940 that the long-petaled orchid was recognized by scholars.
Long-petaled orchid is a very ornamental plant in the orchid family, and the lip flap of its flowers resembles a "pocket", and it looks like a slipper, so it is also called "lady's slipper".
In addition to this "pocket", the long-petaled orchid has an interesting feature, with black bumps on the petals and some fine hairs on them, very much like some kind of aphid.
We know that aphids are the staple food of aphid-eating larvae, and the main pollinator of the long-lobed orchid happens to be the female black-banded aphid fly.
Imagine how excited a female black-banded aphid fly with poor vision was when she saw a pseudo-aphid with long-petaled orchid flowers. In order to make her offspring "worry-free" after birth, the female black belt aphid fly decided to lay eggs here.
Speaking of this, everyone should understand that this feature of the long-petaled hooded orchid is entirely for the purpose of routineing the female black belt aphid fly, and its petals swinging with the wind are simply an open-air advertisement completely aimed at aphid-eating flies: "Here are the best aphids, which is your ideal delivery room." ”
The deceived aphid fly will find that the petals of the long-petaled orchid are so smooth that they cannot stand up, so it slips into the "flower pocket", gets the pollen block, tries to climb out, and flies away without any benefit. After their babies broke out of the egg, they sadly found that because there was no food to sustain their lives, they had to starve to death.
And the long-flapped hooded orchid has no sense of guilt, and continues the next pit abduction.
This is not unique. If there were a court in nature, orchids, including the long-petaled orchid, would be the largest group of defendants, and the "plaintiff" insects would count the crimes of orchids: plant world Grande, routine experts, hateful fraudsters, shameful emotional liars...
Unlike most plants, which provide some remuneration to pollinators, one-third of the more than 20,000 orchids are pollinated by pit abduction.
And scientists have already found the clues.
In 1793, a German naturalist named Sprengel CK discovered that some orchids never secreted nectar from their flowers, but that insects still visited and pollinated orchids without any reward.
With more and more research on orchids, researchers have found that orchids have a variety of tricks, they can simulate nectar-producing plants (usually yellow), or simulate insect nests (such as Tibetan orchids), or release a very tempting smell, "simple-minded" insects, when excited, they will work for orchids for free.
But the most abominable thing is that orchids also engage in sexual deception, by simulating the female of a pollinator insect, attracting males to mate, and the purpose is naturally to pollinate. Poor males waste precious opportunities to reproduce.
So, will these insects gradually become extinct?
Without worrying too much, the researchers found that there must be upright and fair plants around orchids, which make up for the damage of orchids to insects. And this is also the mystery of nature.
Resources:
Shi Jun, Cheng Jin, Luo Dun, Shangguan Fazhi, Luo Yibo, "Prediction using pollination syndrome: Long-petaled Hoodlan simulated breeding ground to deceive female aphid-eating flies pollination" and so on
Zhu Renbin, born in 1988, is a senior engineer at xishuangbanna tropical botanical garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a project director of the secretariat of the China Botanical Garden Alliance. It has recorded more than 4,000 species of plants in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, designed and developed the first biological picture search engine (https://image.cubg.cn/) in China, which can provide a quick search of 450,000 kinds of biological pictures around the world, and designed and developed the "New Record" of the Nature Observation WeChat Mini Program.
Planning coordinator: Zhao Juan Lian Huiling
Text: Lian Huiling
Poster Design: Zhu Renbin Yang Siran