Re: Plants The sixth sense

From: Paul Tyerman ptyerman at ozemail.com.au> on 2002.02.01 at 15:02:06(8117) > >The ones with nodules of wrong color/shape got eaten by the predators >before they managed to set seed, and aren't seen much any more.... > >KK Howdy KK, I realise that should be the way it works, but why sprout those nodules in the first place? If they do sprout them, why colour them differently to the stem? Allowing for this all to be entirely coincidental it must mean that just about every possible variation of a plant has existed at some point in time to be able to reproduce itself. I think it is highly unlikely that ANY permutation of an Amorphophallus (for example) is going to head in the direction of looking like the fly that pollinates it, regardless of how many million years you leave it. So why does a particular orchid look so much like it's pollinator to the point that you can mistakenly at a first glance think that it is a wasp sitting on the flower, rather than it being the flower itself? What made the orchid head in that direction in the first place? Personally, I think it is just interesting to discuss the options. It just seems so odd for such specialised items to appear naturally without any awareness of surroundings. Cheers. Paul Tyerman +More Canberra, Australia. USDA equivalent - Zone 8/9 mailto:ptyerman@ozemail.com.au Growing.... Galanthus, Erythroniums, Fritillarias, Cyclamen, Crocus, Cyrtanthus, Liliums, Hellebores, Aroids, Irises plus just about anything else that doesn't move!!!!!

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