How are Phalaenopsis pollination in the Wild??

[theroc1217]

But it's almost impossible to transfer pollen without transferring an entire pollinia.

[orchidsarefun]

Originally Posted by theroc1217

Orchids do not produce pollen or nectar.

if we take that response at face value, then what is attracting the pollinator to the bloom ?

---------- Post added at 06:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Silje

For me the more intriguing question is perhaps how on earth they actually manage to germinate any seeds at all since that seems more like a complicated science project than anything else. The percentage of phal seeds that actually manage to drop down on a suitable spot with the necessary fungus and the right conditions must be a very small percentage.

I think in natural conditions it may not be that "difficult". I have seen photos of a mounted ( mother ) orchid surrounded by seedlings and that germination occurred in a greenhouse. Also my seed propagator guy has told me that he had spontaneous germination when he had a greenhouse, different types of orchids.
But I agree in principle - if it was easy, then millions of seed wouldn't be produced by the orchid - maybe a couple, like a coconut.

[shushu45]

I just find it difficult as to how the pollinator does it. I have pollinated 3 on my phals and I started thinking how in the heck does something like a bee or moth pollinate these in the wild. The stigma is very small and the bee/moth is big.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The insect's head or back knocks the anther cap off. The anther cap usually has a little spike on the end, called a rostellum, (I think that's what it's called), that sticks out for that purpose - to snag onto the backs or heads of the pollinating insect. If the orchid flower doesn't have a rostellum on the anther cap, then the anther cap is really easy to knock off.

The pollinia are attached to a tape-like segment called the caudicle, which in turn is attached to a viscous pad/sticky pad, called the viscidium. The viscidium attaches onto the insect's back or head.

When the insect moves onto the next orchid flower, the pollinia stuck on the insects head or back will be in the approximate position to be placed in the stigmatic opening. As the insect starts moving about, the pollinia will hopefully get rubbed into the stigmatic opening and start the pollination process.


Now, keep in mind, this is for insects and for most of the orchids in the subfamily Epidendroideae.

There is a whole different thing going on for birds and other orchids in different subfamilies.

---------- Post added at 09:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 AM ----------

Wow!!!

I was trying to pull up some videos of insects pollinating orchids on YouTube, and quite by accident, I found a video titled, "The Secret Sex Life of Malaysian Orchids". This video is divided into 4 parts.

This is part 1:

[shushu45]

Ohhhhhh......ok ok ok ok. I get it now. Thank you.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

This is a blog by a blogger called "Sarawak Lens", it talks about how a certain species of fruit fly is a nuisance because it knocks off anther caps on the blogger's Phalaenopsis bellina.

Sarawak Lens: Phal bellina and dealing with bothersome fruit flies!

I think the fly in the photo is the pollinator. Given how the fly is shaped, and how the side lobes of the labellum are formed, it makes sense. It also makes sense as to why Phalaenopsis bellina is fragrant and brightly colored - the flies are attracted to the colors and the smell.

Btw, the fruit fly in the photo is clearly not Drosophila melanogaster or Drosophila hydei. It is another species altogether. The fruit fly pictured in the blog is probably something in the genus Bactrocera. It could be Bactrocera papayae, Bactrocera dorsalis, or Bactrocera cucurbitae.

Looking more closely, the fly is most likely Bactrocera dorsalis.

[theroc1217]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

if we take that response at face value, then what is attracting the pollinator to the bloom

Sex and food. Orchids are the lazy plant. They want to expend as little energy as possible while reproducing, while saving enough to reproduce again. Most orchids trick their pollinators into trying to mate with it. Others put off a scent like a flower that would have pollen, but doesn't. Some put off the stench of a rotting carcass to be pollinated by flies. It really varies from plant to plant, but orchids are a clever group; they don't want to spend energy producing nectar or sweet smells if they don't need to.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

With the Euglossine Bee species Euglossa viridissima and the orchids in the genus Coryanthes, there is a special trade-off.

Euglossa viridissima pollinates the Coryanthes species, but the Coryanthes species provides a special chemical that gives the male Euglossine Bee a mating scent to present the female Euglossine Bee during courtship.

There could be similar things going on with certain pollinators and some species of orchids. Particularly when the orchid(s) seem to attract a specific gender of a pollinating insect species without having to produce flower parts that deceive the pollinating insect into mistaking the orchid's flower for an insect of the opposite sex.

With orchids such as those in the genus Ophrys, it is very clear that the pollinators are the ones being deceived into mistaking the orchid flower for an insect of the opposite sex. Whether this deception is solely visual based, or chemically based, or both, I'm not entirely sure yet. So far, I have found possible evidence that it could be both!

NZNOG Journal 100 - Orchid nectaries

There are yet other orchids that are mimics of other flowers. One example that I recently discovered was Disa ferruginea. The Red Cluster Disa (Disa ferruginea) is actually a mimic of the iris (Tritoniopsis triticea). The Disa mimics the Tritoniopsis to trick the pollinators of Tritoniopsis triticea into pollinating it. Patches of Disa ferruginea also incidentally grow near stands of Tritoniopsis triticea.

It's kinda strange...

For a non-sentient living organism such as an orchid, I find them to be rather "clever" with their diverse, and often times, complex pollinating mechanisms/strategies.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Btw, I just remembered that some orchids actually do have real nectaries, and I have possibly found evidence that these orchids do not shut off their supply of nectar once the pollinator is attracted to the flower.

So, in some cases with orchids, there is a nectar/pollination trade-off. (aka: In some cases, there is a nectar reward for pollinating the orchid flower.)

http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/93/1/87.full.pdf

There are also orchids that do not use deception at all! Disa chrysostachya gets pollinated because the inflorescence acts as a possible perching spot for a few species of South African Sunbirds. In this case, there is an indirect reward for pollinating the orchid's flowers - the reward being a tall perch.

[epiphyte78]

My friend and I were just talking about pollination. I mentioned that honeybees aren't native to the Americas and I wondered how many native orchids they successfully and regularly pollinate. Then we started talking about how Phalaenopsis are by far the most commonly grown orchid here in the Americas. I told my friend that I haven't heard of any of them being naturally pollinated here. So we wondered who naturally pollinates them in their native habitat. I searched for "natural pollination of Phalaenopsis" and found this thread.

According to the Wikipedia entry for Phalaenopsis amabilis, it's pollinated by "large carpenter bees from the genus Xylocopa". So maybe our carpenter bees aren't large enough? Or they aren't interested? Or perhaps the Phalaenopsis hybrids are larger than amabilis?

Personally I'm pretty sure that hummingbirds have pollinated my Dendrobium bigibbum and Dendrobium teretifolium and some other species that aren't native to the Americas. I wish that I was a vampire so that I could see how the mix of nonnative and native species and pollinators would influence the orchid family over time.