Flower of deception
Deceptive flowers attract pollinators by exploiting either their foraging, egg-laying or sexual behavior. Deception flowers can resemble a source of food in their external appearance, but without giving off nectar to their pollinators. Some plants also pretend to be an egg substrate or a sexual partner. So the animal does not get a reward from the plant, but the plant takes advantage of it: it is pollinated. They also imitate flowers of the opposite sex or of other species.
One third of the orchid species make up 90% of these flowering plants. Examples of deceptive flowers that do not belong to the orchid group are the dwarf iris , the common hazel root , Orbea schweinfurthii and Stapelia flavopurpurea .
Animals are attracted very differently: most orchids imitate nectar sources, carrion, dung or mushrooms with their smell in order to attract bees, flies, mosquitoes or beetles as pollinators ( zoophilia ). Some orchids also have an optical effect on pollinators by resembling a fungus as a food source ( mimicking the fungus ) (as in the case of Bulbophyllum lobbii ), or by imitating sexual partners (as in the case of bee , fly and spider plantar ). Other orchids ( Oncidium spec. ) Attract bees by provoking territorial battles with their smell and appearance. The species Dendrobium sinense , which occurs in southern China, attracts hornets by emitting an alarm pheromone from bees, which are among the hornets' prey.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ J. Brodmann, R. Twele, W. Francke et al .: Orchid Mimics Honey Bee Alarm Pheromone in Order to Attract Hornets for Pollination. In: Current Biology. 19 (16), 2009, 1368-72, doi : 10.1016 / j.cub.2009.06.067 .