Ask a Teacher

Search



what is mean by the sexual deceit by orchids?
The great majority of animal pollinated plants secure the services of their animal pollinators by providing food rewards such as nectar or pollen. However, orchids are exceptional in that perhaps as many as one third of the 30,000 or so species achieve pollination by deception. That is, they lure animal pollinators to the flower by false promises of food, but do not provide any. Most of these species are ‘food deceptive’ falsely advertising the presence of food by bright colors and sweet scents.pollination is achieved by sexual deception. In these cases, male insects are sexually attracted to the flower by a floral scent that imitates the olfactory cue or sex pheromone used by the pollinator species to attract a mate. Pollination occurs when pollinators attempt copulation (or so-called pseudocopulation) with the flower. The pollination syndrome of sexual deception is known from the terrestrial orchid genus Ophrys in Europe and at least 9 genera of ground orchids in Australia. Many of these flowers are inconspicuous dull colored, red, greens and browns with little or no detectable scent to humans, since bright floral colors and sweet floral odours are not needed to advertise the flower. Typically, pollination by sexual deception is highly specific and usually only involves one insect species (Schiest and Peakall 2002). Several different kinds of male wasps as well as the males of one species of ant and a species of saw fly are sexually exploited by orchids


comments powered by Disqus