Orchid bends around to insert pollen.Researchers studying an orchid orchid, popular name for members of the Orchidaceae, a family of perennial herbs widely distributed in both hemispheres. The unusually large family (of some 450 genera and an estimated 10,000 to 17,500 species) includes terrestrial, epiphytic (see epiphyte), and in a parched parch v. parched, parch·ing, parch·es v.tr. 1. To make extremely dry, especially by exposure to heat: The midsummer sun parched the earth. , windless habitat have discovered a new twist on self-pollination. Other flowers pollinate pol·li·nate also pol·len·ate tr.v. pol·li·nat·ed also pol·len·at·ed, pol·li·nat·ing also pol·len·at·ing, pol·li·nates also pol·len·ates To transfer pollen from an anther to the stigma of (a flower). themselves, but none has been reported to do so as acrobatically as the flowers of Holcoglossum amesianum. The orchid grows on trees in the forests of Yunnan, China. It blooms during the dry season, from February through April, says LaiQiang Huang of Tsinghua University History Tsinghua University was established in Beijing in 1911 on the site of a former royal garden belonging to a prince, and was funded by an indemnity which in Shenzhen, China. While observing 10 orchid populations over three flowering seasons, Huang and colleagues never saw an insect visit a bloom. It wasn't a windy place, either, Huang says. Nevertheless, the flowers manage quite well, the researchers report in the June 22 Nature. All the flower's sexual organs sit on a single protrusion protrusion /pro·tru·sion/ (-troo´zhun) 1. extension beyond the usual limits, or above a plane surface. 2. the state of being thrust forward or laterally, as in masticatory movements of the mandible. from the bloom. The researchers observed that when the blossom matures, a little cap drops off the protrusion, revealing two pollen-covered organs that look like orange lollipops. Each slowly twists as it grows until its end pushes into a little pocket on the protrusion's underside, where the female organ, or stigma, lies.--S.M. |
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