Natural history

The life cycle of an orchid is not essentially different from that of any other flowering plant. When the pollinator leaves one or more pollinia on the stigma, the pollen tubes germinate and grow down the centre of the column to reach the developing ovules in the ovary. This often causes the sides of the stigma to swell around the stigma and the enclosed pollinia. When the pollen tubes reach the ovules after about six weeks or longer, one or more ovules are fertilized, and the resulting zygotes develop into embryos. Most angiosperms undergo double fertilization, one of which forms the zygote and the other an endosperm that nourishes the developing plant upon germination until the plant is able to manufacture its own food. The orchid seed, however, has no endosperm. The seed consists of a simple, dry, outer coat enclosing a small mass of undifferentiated cells that form a pro-embryo. This extremely small and light unit can easily be carried in air currents and may travel long distances before coming to rest. The large number of seeds in a single orchid capsule undoubtedly is correlated with the unlikelihood of a seed’s falling in a favourable spot during wind dispersal.

The presence of the labellum as a landing platform for insect pollinators and the reduction of the stamens and pistil of a flower to a single structure, the column, is certainly the apex of floral adaptation to insects as pollinating agents. Once achieved, this combination provides a foundation for all kinds of specializations for attracting of specific pollinators.

The function of pollen deposition is centralized precisely in the median plane opposite the labellum. Being directed back toward the centre of the flower, the anther deposits pollen on the most advantageous side of the visitor, considering efficiency in reception and deposition. This precision is also expressed by a tendency of orchids to deposit the pollen as two to eight masses, the pollinia.

Orchids as a group use nectar as the major attractant, whereas pollen, sought by pollinators among more primitive plant families as a protein-rich food, has been withdrawn. This is tied to the exactness of the mechanics of pollination, but it also means that orchids can no longer provide the only source of sustenance for the pollinator, and other flowers must be present in the biosphere to maintain visitors.

Nectar is provided in tubular nectaries (Brassavola, Angraecum, Comparettia, and other genera), in grooves on the labellum (e.g., Listera and Epipactis), and at the base of the column and lip (e.g., Dendrobium and Scaphyglottis). A large number of orchids are nectarless and have developed other means of attracting pollinators, largely consisting of deceptive attractants in one form or another.

Many orchids attract pollinators with pseudopollen, a powdery mass resembling pollen that is found on the labellum of a number of species of Maxillaria and Polystachya. Sometimes the grains are detached outgrowths called papillae, and sometimes they are disintegrated multicellular hairs that are filled with starch.

Flowers pollinated by bees open during the day and tend to have similar characteristics: agreeable odours, bright colours (except red, which bees see as black or gray), a landing platform, nectar guides in the form of coloured lines running into the depths of the flower, and concealed nectaries. The basal portions of the orchid lip are usually formed into a tunnel with the column constituting its upper side. The bee enters the tunnel to get at the nectary, and as the bee backs out some of the stigmatic fluid may be rubbed on its back. As the bee backs farther, the pollinia become attached to the sticky material and are carried with the bee to the next flower. In more advanced orchids the pollinia may be attached to a sticky pad, the viscidium, which becomes detached from part of the stigma and sticks to the pollinator.

Some species of orchids are pollinated by bees that are attracted by means of deception. The flowers of the large genus Oncidium, for example, are pollinated by male Centris bees in what appears to be a case of pseudoantagonism. The flower seems to simulate an enemy insect, which the male bee tries to drive away from his territory. As the bee strikes at the flower, the pollinia are attached to the head of the bee.

The most exciting and unusual examples of deceit, traps, and manipulation of pollinators are to be found in those orchids that are pollinated by male euglossine bees (species of the bee tribe Euglossini). The syndrome of flowers that are pollinated by male euglossini is based on the attraction of the male bees to the odour of the flower. In no case does the male euglossine bee receive food from the orchid that it visits. The euglossine male bees visit other nectar-producing flowers for their food, but, when the male bees visit the non-nectar-producing orchid flowers, they rub the surface of the lip with their front feet and collect in special tarsal brushes the odour that is produced there. The bees then launch themselves into the air and transfer the odour to their hind tibiae (leg segments), which have become noticeably swollen. It is in the process of transferring the odour to the hind tibiae that the bee is manipulated by the orchid.

Another variation of pollinator manipulation by orchids is found in the genus Coryanthes. The flowers are very large and might even be considered grotesque. The sepals and petals fold back out of the way when the flower opens—like sails on a boat—revealing a strangely formed lip divided into three parts: a globular- or hood-shaped portion called the hypochile above; an elongate, sometimes fluted part, the mesochile; and a bucket-shaped epichile. The epichile is partially filled with water during the last few hours before the flower opens and for a short time afterward by two faucetlike organs located at the base of the column, which drip water. Male euglossine bees are attracted by the strong odour produced by the hypochile, where they scratch. In trying to launch into the air to transfer the odour to their hind legs, the bees occasionally fall into the water-filled bucket. The sides of the bucket are vertical and are very waxy, so that the bee is not able to climb out of the bucket. The only way for the bee to get out is through a small tunnel formed by the apex of the column and the apex of the epichile of the lip. As the bee forces its way out of the tunnel, the pollinarium is deposited on its thorax. The pollinia may then be deposited in the stigma of another flower on a next visit, provided the original pollinia of that flower have already been removed and the stigmatic cleft has opened sufficiently to become receptive.

Because moths normally fly at night, they are attracted to flowers that produce strong odours and are white or light-coloured. Moths hover in front of the flower while extracting the nectar. The typical moth-pollinated flower has a long, slender nectar tube containing abundant nectar. The fragrance produced is typically sweet or musky, and the flowers usually are horizontal or hanging. Butterflies, on the other hand, are day fliers and are attracted to highly coloured flowers that may or may not be fragrant. Butterflies tend to be somewhat erratic fliers and, lacking the ability to hover, usually land on the flower. The flowers are, therefore, usually erect and provide platforms for landing. Often the platform simply consists of a head of erect, densely packed flowers. Butterflies detect colours well, and butterfly-pollinated flowers are usually brightly coloured with red, orange, or yellow predominating. Nectar is commonly abundant and is hidden in deep nectar tubes. In most of the moth- and butterfly-pollinated orchids, the nectar tube is arranged to guide the tongue or beak in such a manner that the pollinia are correctly attached to the pollinating organism.

In an oft-cited case, Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, predicted that a moth with a 25-centimetre-long proboscis would eventually be found on the island of Madagascar as the pollinator of the orchid Angraecum sesquipedale, since a moth would need a long tongue to reach the nectar hidden in the very long nectary at the base of the lip. Such a moth has been found and has been observed pollinating the flowers of this amazing orchid.

Flowers adapted to pollination by birds are usually brightly coloured, with reds, blues, and yellows predominating. They are usually tubular in form, often with a long nectary, and nectar is almost always present. Birds have little or no sense of smell, and bird-pollinated flowers tend to lack odour; however, the bright colours serve to attract the birds. Bird-pollinated orchids tend to follow the pattern of other bird flowers, but in some cases they diverge considerably. Many orchids of the Western Hemisphere appear to have adapted to bird pollination as an extension of butterfly pollination, and, as in the case of Epidendrum secundum, birds and butterflies act as copollinators. In such cases, orchid flowers already adapted to butterflies are not greatly changed morphologically. On the other hand, orchids that have adapted directly to hummingbirds from bee-pollinated ancestors have changed fundamentally. The genera Cochlioda, Sophronitis, Elleanthus, Isochilus, Comparettia, Hexisea, and Meiracyllium are all bird-pollinated and are remarkably similar in certain aspects. All have bright colours, tubular form, and a callus or hump in the interior of the tube, on the lip, which acts to force the beak of the bird against the column.

Some flies are important pollinators of flowers, and certain families of flies (e.g., the Syrphidae and Bombyliidae) are restricted to flowers for their food. Unspecialized flowers may attract flies to nectar, which is present in open, shallow nectaries and may emit sweet odours. The flies eat the nectar and do not store it as do bees. More specialized fly flowers may attract flies through deception, imitating decaying substances, dung, or carrion. For example, the flowers of B. nocturnum, the only orchid known to flower exclusively at night, are thought to attract fly pollinators by mimicking fungi in both shape and scent. Nocturnal flies are then attracted and act as effective pollinators.

Fly-pollinated flowers have often developed traps for catching and holding unadapted visitors. They commonly have large landing surfaces and “tails” produced from the flower parts, which function as guides. Their colours are usually checkered or blotched and tend toward dull green, brown, purple, or red. The odours produced are commonly putrescent. Orchids pollinated by flies are common throughout the world. In most fly-pollinated orchids, special adaptations have developed—superimposed on the basic pattern of the bee-pollinated orchid flower—to guide the somewhat poorly oriented flies. Certain of the five petals may be long and taillike (as in Bulbophyllum and Masdevallia) or joined to form a flat radial flower (as in Stelis). The flowers themselves may be arranged to form a larger radial, compound “flower” (as in Cirrhopetalum). The petals or lip may be fringed with motile clublike hairs that vibrate in the wind and attract the flies (Bulbophyllum). Often the sepals are joined or the lip is saccate to form a trap (Pterostylis) into which the flies fall and from which they must crawl by way of a tunnel that passes the stigma and anther. A common contrivance by which orchids exploit flies is a hinged, balanced lip that tips with the weight of the fly and launches the pollinator into the flower.

In orchids it is often difficult to decide when simple fly pollination ends and deception that is based on carrion mimicry begins. Many genera have some species whose pollination is based simply on attracting various kinds of flies by means of sweet odours and nectar production, while others attract flies on the basis of rotten odours but provide no food.

Three major groups of orchids have become predominantly fly-pollinated: the subtribe Pleurothallidinae in tropical America, containing more than 4,000 species; the Bulbophyllum group of about 1,800 species found mainly in the Old World; and the large genus Pterostylis and its relatives in Australia.

Self-pollination occurs in a significant number of orchids. Several degrees of this phenomenon may be found in a single genus, from species in which accidental self-pollination results in fertilization to those in which the flowers never open, yet are capable of producing fertile seed. In many orchids, self-fertilization is not possible because of genetically controlled self-incompatibility, in which pollen from a plant having a particular combination of genetic factors will not fertilize its own ovules or those of any other plant having the same combination.

In most species the pollen is kept separate from the stigma by the rostellum. This physical barrier is normally quite effective; but, in some species, forms occur in which the rostellum degenerates or becomes stigmatic, and self-pollination results when the pollen germinates on the stigmatic fluid. In most of these forms, normal plants are also found in the same population. Self-pollination may also occur as a result of simple falling of old pollinia, a means of averting sterility at the end of a long normal period when the flower is open but no pollinator arrives.

A kind of mechanical self-pollination occurs in some orchids in which the tissues connecting the viscidium and the pollinia bend down and carry the pollinia into place on the stigma. Generally speaking, self-fertilization in orchids seems to be a means of averting extinction in plants growing under conditions adverse for normal pollination relationships. Examples include some species of Orchis in Europe and several orchids in Florida, such as Epidendrum nocturnum and Bletia purpurea, all of which have cross-pollinated forms in other areas. Seeds blow into Florida from the Caribbean area where normal pollinators exist, but the plants that survive tend to be self-pollinated because they lack their customary pollinators, which are not found in Florida.

Flowers of the genus Ophrys deceive and manipulate pollinators mainly through odours, imitating those produced by the abdominal glands of female bees or wasps. Flower shapes, colours (including ultraviolet reflection), and tactile stimuli by the hairs on the lip operate on the sensory organs of the visiting males, leading ultimately to the same behaviour as that observed during the initial phases of copulation with female bees. No ejection of sperm occurs, however, but the supernormal olfactory stimulation ensures that the male will remain for a long stay on the flower.

This act of pseudocopulation takes place in such a way that the pollinia are carried off and redeposited on a different plant. Four genera of solitary bees and wasps appear to be the principal pollinators. The orchid species of Ophrys that are pollinated by the wasps Trielis and Gorytes, and the bee Eucera induce the insects to attempt copulation with the apex of the lip. Those orchids pollinated by Andrena appear, for the most part, to stimulate the bee to reverse its position and copulate with the base of the lip. In the former group the pollinarium is affixed to the head of the pollinator, while in the latter it is attached to the abdomen. Only the introductory behaviour is necessary for pollination of the flower, and the bees do not encounter structures that lead to ejection of sperm. The behaviour is elicited by tactile stimulation from the hairs on the labellum, but the male “suitor” requires simultaneous and continued olfactory stimulation. The glistening pseudonectaries apparently imitate the eyes of the female bee. Metallic-blue mirror spots similar to those found in the females enhance the effect. Dimensions of the flowers in the various species of Ophrys help in determining specificity and success.

Australian orchids of the genus Cryptostylis are pollinated by ichneumon wasps of the genus Lissopimpla. The wasp, after backing into the stigma, attempts to copulate with the flower by bending its body into an arch, with the base of the lip of the flower held by the claspers of the wasp. The upper side of the apex of the abdomen comes in contact with the viscidium, and the pollinarium becomes cemented in place. The wasp, after a short pause, then flies to another flower, and the same behaviour delivers the pollinia to the stigma.

The South American orchid Trichoceros antennifer has flowers that simulate the female flies of the genus Paragymnomma to a remarkable degree. The column and base of the lip are narrow, barred with yellow and red-brown, and they extend laterally to simulate the extended wings of a sitting fly. The base of the lip has no particular similarity to the head and thorax of a fly, but this is probably not necessary to complete the illusion. The stigma of the flower is located more or less at the apex of the “false abdomen” of the flower and reflects sunlight, as does the genital orifice of the female fly. The viscidium, extended over the stigma on the slender rostellum, projects up through the bristles and becomes attached to the basal portion of the abdomen of the fly. The viscidium is flat and padlike in this genus. The male flies, deceived by the simulated female fly and stimulated by the signal from the genital-orifice-like stigma, strike the flower for only a moment and then pass on to other flowers in the same area. The action is sufficient, however, to pick up the pollinarium. The long, slender stipe of the pollinarium bends down slightly and is forced into the stigma when the fly visits a succeeding flower.

A number of species of orchids have developed nectaries located in other places on the plant body than the flower. These seem to attract ants, which in turn scare away bees that would otherwise rob the flower of its nectar by cutting into the tissues of the flower. Such extrafloral nectaries also attract wasps, which also scare away insects that might steal the nectar from the flower. These ants and wasps are also thought to keep away grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and other insects that eat the flowers. The symbiotic relationship (i.e., two organisms living together with mutual benefit) between ants and the orchids that grow only in ant nests (e.g., Coryanthes and some species of Gongora, Epidendrum, and Schomburgkia) may depend on this defensive mechanism. The plants and flowers of these orchids are extremely susceptible to damage by chewing insects if the ants are destroyed. The ants involved in this relationship do not pollinate the orchids; indeed, no ants are known to pollinate orchids.