Busy bee
Posted by 1troy3 on July 2, 2009
Finally getting some time off so I’m hoping to see a few more of you on the trail or on the beach. Bring it on.
Ian very kindly took me to a secret location (OK, his office lawn) to see the bee orchids. They are uncanny plants – something quite special. Snaps next door. Those of you who who like the technical stuff might be interested to know that I had to whack the ISO setting way up to 1600. The evening sun had almost gone but I wanted to avoid a harsh flash – a grainy picture is the price you pay (bloody physics, it’s so uncompromising).
Off in search of dyer’s greenweed next week (unless I get a better offer).
Take it easy.
Ian said
A question for you – why would a flower evolve to look like a bee? What’s the advantage here?? Great photo by the way!
Ian said
I have Googled the answer – amazing stuff at it turns out.
DaveG said
I think I understand the why but not the how.
So if your main pollinator is a bee it would make sense to adapt to attract them. OK I geddit. But I find it difficult to accept that a random mutation producing a tiny move in that direction gives one individual such a massive advantage that this becomes the dominant trait. Evolution seems only to allow small incremental steps towards exploiting a set of advantageous circumstances.
Morten and myself have this wild untested theory that maybe evolution occasionally moves in rapid jerks. Perhaps even the experiences of one lifetime could be passed on to the next generation in their DNA code? So maybe one mutation produced a flower something very similar to a bee in a freak of nature and was so successful it just outcompeted everything else.
The experts will no doubt explain why we are so wrong but I’m not convinced we know the full story of how evolution works. Can someone make a case for the cuckoo for example?
You can either join the debate here, or better still come on one of our adventures on the trail where we discuss these things in full. (Oh joy, I hear some of you groan)
DaveG said
PS. My cousin Matt explained that the bee orchid requires the action of a fungus to germinate which is why these amazing flowers are so uncommon. Most arable land is sprayed with fungicide so even a healthy-looking pasture is useless orchid territory. As a result, they tend to grown only on nature reserves, brown-field sites, rare unimproved soils and quirky places like industrial estate green spaces where all they get is the occasional mow.