

k'^l'- Mr^:^r 



"■.?^'^:^./..• />.:^■ 



:'-Y r~ 



■.: V. , ■ ■ ■■■■■■ ;• tl 1 



patiently resumed its search for another 

 flower of the same kind. The figwort, 

 blooming close to the ground and isolated 

 from others of its kind, was undoubtedly 

 not visited by many shoppers. But those 

 that found it — probably randomly at 

 first — became flower constant, hooked on 

 the good bargain because of its good crop 

 of nectar. In the flower supermarket, the 

 choices faced by bees are like those facing 

 a human shopper — dozens of brands, all 

 with different, showy labels. 



Flowers must provide a good reward to 

 insure repeat visits from a pollinator In a 

 meadow, as in a supermarket, competing 

 product displays lure the buyer But in the 

 meadow, shoppers (pollinators) going 

 down the "aisles" are free to snack. In 

 order to keep them constant to any one 

 brand, the manufacturer (the plant) not 



only has to advertise but also has to try to 

 keep thievery (taking nectar without pay- 

 ing the plant with with pollen transfer) to a 

 minimum. One way to do that is to limit 

 access to the flowers. (Loyalty, or flower 

 constancy, is important because each 

 flower "wants" its pollen to be deposited in 

 the stigma of its own kind, not that of an- 

 other kind). Complex flowers are like puz- 

 zles, solvable only by those pollinators 

 able to gain information denied others. 



Perhaps no competitors are more 

 bizarre than the Mediterranean Ophiys or- 

 chids. I had read about this group of a 

 dozen or so species, each catering to a dif- 

 ferent, winged pollinator. Nevertheless, I 

 was startled to have one pointed out to me 

 at my feet. Barely six inches tall, its solid 

 green stalk supported two exquisite, tiny 

 flowers and three to four unopened buds. 



The flowers, about half an inch long, could 

 be easily missed by the human eye, unless 

 one knew what to look for The two tiny 

 flowers resembled bees. It didn't take great 

 leaps of the imagination to see a small, 

 bulbous, buzzy "abdomen" and even 

 "wings" at each side. We have no idea 

 what a bee or wasp sees, but the mimicry 

 is undoubtedly much greater to the insect 

 than it is to us. In mounting these flowers, 

 male insects are probably attracted by the 

 perfume, which in this case mimics the sex 

 scent of the intended mate, but then orient 

 themselves to the flower fonii. 



I gently inserted the end of a twig to 

 where I presumed the head of a copulating 

 bee might reach, and when I withdrew it, it 

 held a yellow packet of pollen such as a 

 male might transfer to the next Ophiys it 

 finds of that species. 



57 



