Orchids are expert scammers and have come up with different ways to trick bees into reproducing.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himUnable to attract bees and bumblebees to true pollen, Cypripedium wardii orchids have come up with a winning strategy for fooling pollinators and be able to reproduce.
The pollen of this species, like that of most orchids, is in fact not edible for bees and other insects, therefore orchids have developed various techniques to attract pollinators. Some, for example, release sex pheromones which attract male insects. Cypripedium wardii flowers have instead evolved to produce false pollen, a substance known to researchers for a hundred years.
Lo pseudopolline, very similar to the real one, attracts bees and bumblebees and leads them inside the flower so that the insects collect the real pollen.
La tactics implemented by these orchids works, but why do bees - notoriously intelligent - allow themselves to be fooled by flowers? A group of researchers recently found the answer: pseudopollin, although a fake, contains lipids that nourish bees.
The results confirmed for the first time that the pseudopollen represents a true one reward for insects. In the light of this new discovery, botanists realized that the only ones to have been deceived are the researchers: in reality bees have never been fooled by orchids and were perfectly aware of the advantages offered by fake pollen, nutritious like the true one.
Sources of reference: Science / Biorxiv
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