B
Bob Wellenstein
Guest
Several members of this section appear to have nectaries on their dorsal sepals, more noticably on the posterior but also sometimes on the anterior surface and it appears also along the petals. The drops of "nectar" are small on kolopakingii but with high humidity will quickly grow sooty mold.
They also develop, and I am determined to try to follow this each year but yet havent, an area of small white spots around the upper surface of the pouch (where better to lure an insect to fall in) that we presume to be insect egg mimics. Whether these are to encourage an insect that this is a good spot to lay eggs because others of the species have, or to lay eggs because the hatch from these will be food for its larvae, who knows.
These spots develop and increaseas the flowers age, as evidenced by the upper part of the inflorescence here:
Another species that does both of these is Paph. adductum, in fact adductum produces really large amounts of nectar on the back of the dorsal, but not usually as much of the white "eggs":
And Paph supardii also does this. The "eggs" that can build up right on the rim of Paph supardii will stand straight up from the very edge of the rim a couple of mm high (mimicking a different species?) This one is at the early stages, but if you look closely at the dorsal those bluish circles are where the nectaries are, and in this "case" the eggs appear on the dorsal in addition to the pouch.
SO, certainly looks like deception via the "eggs", but the solution produced by the nectaries almost certainly contains sugar as it cultures sooty mold so well, so maybe some of our slippers offer a reward also. And...
To head to another slipper genus that supposedly doesn't reward (and maybe indeed doesn't) has anyone taken the time to smell a Cyp acaule flower. There is a faint sweet scent. I never noticed anything else unusual about acaule, in spite of enjoying seeing literally thousands of them in flower each year, until last year when I found this in the wild near us:
Although clearly a true album form, close exam showed a faint red color forming on the ovary and around the pollenia and to a lesser extent on the staminodal shield. Pulled out a loop and this is what we saw:
I would have never noticed this in a normal color form, but the fine hairs were exuding very tiny drops of fluid, that presumable contained something that was oxidizing (the level of red increased with time) in the air. Is this an offering, or the opposite and a repellant - one would thing the staminodal shield would not be a place to put a repellant.
Nectar for thought
All photos copyright
oke:
They also develop, and I am determined to try to follow this each year but yet havent, an area of small white spots around the upper surface of the pouch (where better to lure an insect to fall in) that we presume to be insect egg mimics. Whether these are to encourage an insect that this is a good spot to lay eggs because others of the species have, or to lay eggs because the hatch from these will be food for its larvae, who knows.
These spots develop and increaseas the flowers age, as evidenced by the upper part of the inflorescence here:
Another species that does both of these is Paph. adductum, in fact adductum produces really large amounts of nectar on the back of the dorsal, but not usually as much of the white "eggs":
And Paph supardii also does this. The "eggs" that can build up right on the rim of Paph supardii will stand straight up from the very edge of the rim a couple of mm high (mimicking a different species?) This one is at the early stages, but if you look closely at the dorsal those bluish circles are where the nectaries are, and in this "case" the eggs appear on the dorsal in addition to the pouch.
SO, certainly looks like deception via the "eggs", but the solution produced by the nectaries almost certainly contains sugar as it cultures sooty mold so well, so maybe some of our slippers offer a reward also. And...
To head to another slipper genus that supposedly doesn't reward (and maybe indeed doesn't) has anyone taken the time to smell a Cyp acaule flower. There is a faint sweet scent. I never noticed anything else unusual about acaule, in spite of enjoying seeing literally thousands of them in flower each year, until last year when I found this in the wild near us:
Although clearly a true album form, close exam showed a faint red color forming on the ovary and around the pollenia and to a lesser extent on the staminodal shield. Pulled out a loop and this is what we saw:
I would have never noticed this in a normal color form, but the fine hairs were exuding very tiny drops of fluid, that presumable contained something that was oxidizing (the level of red increased with time) in the air. Is this an offering, or the opposite and a repellant - one would thing the staminodal shield would not be a place to put a repellant.
Nectar for thought
All photos copyright
oke:
Last edited by a moderator:
