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Brazil Nuts, Rats, Bees, Orchids and Goosebumps
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By Geoffrey Frost at 2008-11-12 13:44
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few weeks ago I saw an episode of Nature on PBS that told a fascinating and astounding story about orchids, bees, rats, and Brazil nuts and their intricate ecosystem. Thinking about what I saw and learned on that show absolutely gives me goosebumps, even now.
Let me tell you about the Brazil nut tree – Bertholletia excelsa. In the Amazon jungle countries of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, the Brazil nut trees grow to heights of 200+ feet, producing nuts that many of us enjoy and that provide a substantial source of income for the people of these countries.
In fact, export sales of Brazil nuts are In fact, export sales of Brazil nuts are second only to those of rubber, adding $44 million annually to South American economies. We Americans chow down on $17 million of them every year. These amazing trees can live from 500 – 800 years and don’t start producing until they’re 10 to 30 years old! (And we thought orchids were slow!) The nuts are contained in a pod the size of a large grapefruit. When ripe, these pods fall like cannon balls from heights of 150 feet or more and reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour. Look out below! Anything hit by one is quickly done in!
Amazingly, the pod is the proverbial “tough nut to crack” and doesn’t break open from this fall. For many years no one knew how the pods were opened so that the nuts could escape and start new trees. Recently scientists conducted an experiment to find out, thinking that it was some kind of animal with a powerful jaw that could crack them open. They cut some pods open, attached magnets to the seeds (15 to 25 per pod arranged like orange slices), and resealed them. Then they traced the little magnets with a big one. To their great surprise, they discovered that a large (rabbit-sized – up to 10 lbs.) rat called an agouti (of the genus Dasyprocta), with chisel sharp front teeth, was the sole pod opener! Since virtually all Brazil nut production comes from wild forest trees and wild harvesting, the agouti is essential in dispersing seeds to start new trees. Although cultivated Brazil nut plantations are being tried, they don’t do very well because of a dearth of pollinator bees.
Brazil nut trees have large, tough, complexly coiled, yellow flowers with a heavy hood. These flowers can be pollinated only by an insect that is strong enough to lift the hood and that has a tongue long enough to negotiate the complex coils. Pollination is accomplished exclusively by a specific type of Euglossine or
“orchid bee”, and only the female bee can do this. The males have other things to do. These bees are found almost exclusively in the wild, where they live solitary lives, with no hives that can be moved to plantations for pollination purposes. Hence the problems with getting plantation trees pollinated.
Now to the part the orchids play in this saga. The male “orchid bee” goes to an orchid flower for perfume to attract a female for mating, and he cannot attract a female without this scent. In the process of rubbing on the orchid to acquire the scent, he inadvertently pollinates it. Then he flies off to find a female and indulge his primal urges!
Nature did not identify the particular orchid that the male uses for this purpose but showed a picture of what I thought to be a species of catasetum. I have not been able to identify the specific orchid from my Internet searches. The important thing to remember about this part of the story is that only the male bee goes to the orchid – whatever it is – and only the female bee pollinates the Brazil nut flower.
Now I want to tie all these elements together. We are all aware that many species of plants and animals are in danger of extinction in the Amazon because of habitat destruction. If the habitat of the orchid that the male bee uses to get his sexy scent is destroyed, causing the orchid to disappear, the male orchid bee will not be able to acquire the scent he needs to attract a female for mating. Consequently, no more baby bees. If there are no more bees, there is nothing to pollinate the Brazil nut trees – ergo, no more Brazil nuts for the world to enjoy; no more Brazil nut industry to support the people of the region, economic problems ensue.
Isn’t this an amazing story? But where, you ask, do the goosebumps come into the picture? For me they come in realizing the interconnectedness of life on this planet. Would you ever have thought in your wildest imagination that a small – perhaps not terribly pretty or significant looking - orchid controls a major industry and the economic well being of the people in several countries and, by extension, the world? Would we want a world without Brazil nuts, agoutis, bees and orchids? I wonder how many other things that we take for granted are dependent upon some organism as seemingly insignificant as the orchid that
provides the sexual scent for the male bee?
This story should make us all sit up and take notice of our responsibility to be better caretakers of our planet. Haven’t we all heard stories of how currently known – and unknown – plants that could be of untold benefit to humankind are disappearing daily because of our mindless destruction of the environment? And this destruction is not happening exclusively in the Amazon either. It goes on around us every day, and we’re all guilty of it in some form. My hope is that all of us will open our eyes and hearts and let ourselves experience goosebumps over the environmental impact of our actions and do our part to save our beautiful, wonderful planet. Every now and then think about the story of the Brazil nut trees, bees, rats, and orchids. I for one will never look at or eat a Brazil nut in the same way again.
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What is your favorite orchid alliance? (According to how OB has them divided)
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