Thursday, May 19, 2005
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Don - any idears on why irises (irides?) are designed the way they are? What pollintaes them?
Ya feel like saving me a google search?
Ya feel like saving me a google search?
# posted by 
: May 20, 2005
: May 20, 2005
Brian,
Well, I've got no google-learnin' on iris, but have watched many a bumble bee pollinating them. The iris is basically like three front porches facing different directions. The bee is attracted to land on the fall (sepal), where it conveniently finds the beard to hang onto to crawl into the flower (lines on the fall also point him into the flower).The standards (vertical petals) form the porch roof and walls, protecting the inner parts and forming a tunnel the bee enters, where the anthers and stigma lie, the bee passing under the anthers, and picking up pollen to get to the nectar and stigma. It's really one of the best engineered flowers for its job, and bumble bees are always right there.
Don
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Well, I've got no google-learnin' on iris, but have watched many a bumble bee pollinating them. The iris is basically like three front porches facing different directions. The bee is attracted to land on the fall (sepal), where it conveniently finds the beard to hang onto to crawl into the flower (lines on the fall also point him into the flower).The standards (vertical petals) form the porch roof and walls, protecting the inner parts and forming a tunnel the bee enters, where the anthers and stigma lie, the bee passing under the anthers, and picking up pollen to get to the nectar and stigma. It's really one of the best engineered flowers for its job, and bumble bees are always right there.
Don
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