Thanks for sharing this very useful information Pankaj Ji, they are truly marvels of nature as said by Rawat Ji..really much needed information for many of us..
On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 10:35 PM, D.S Rawat <[email protected]>wrote: > *Ophrys* are truly marvels of evolution. A very peculiar case of > trans-kingdom production of some very complicated chemicals. Plants may be > stationary, non speaking or thinking living things but they are certainly > clever enough to fool the insects. Great evolutionary > relationship...coevolution at work. > Thanks Pankaj Ji for this informative post. > DSRawat Pantnagar > > > On Thursday, October 10, 2013 5:27:03 PM UTC+5:30, Dr Pankaj Kumar wrote: > >> Ophrys L. >> >> The genus Ophrys is a large group of orchids from the alliance Orchis >> in the subtribe Orchidinae. These plants are remarkable in that they >> successfully reproduce through pseudocopulation, that is, their >> flowers mimic female insects to such a degree that amorous males are >> fooled into mating with the flowers, thereby pollinating them. There >> are many natural hybrids. The type species is Ophrys insectifera >> L.1753 >> They are referred to as the "Bee orchids" due to the flowers of some >> species resemblance to the furry bodies of bees and other insects. >> Their scientific name Ophrys is the Greek word for "eyebrow", >> referring to the furry edges of the lips of several species. >> Ophrys was first mentioned in the book "Natural History" by Pliny the >> Elder (23-79 AD). >> >> Biology >> >> They are terrestrial or ground orchids from central to South Europe, >> North Africa, Asia Minor, up to the Caucasus Mountains, but mostly in >> the Mediterranean region. They have been said to be the most important >> group of European terrestrial orchids. >> During summer, all Ophrys orchids are dormant as underground bulbous >> tubers, which serve as a food reserve. In late summer/autumn they >> develop a rosette of leaves. Also a new tuber starts to grow and >> matures until the following spring; the old tuber slowly dies. The >> next spring the flowering stem starts to grow. During flowering the >> leaves have already started to wither. >> Most Ophrys orchids are dependent on symbiotic fungi. Transplanting >> specimens, especially wild specimens, is difficult, sometimes >> impossible, due to this symbiosis unless a large amount of surrounding >> earth is also taken with the plant. All orchids are protected under >> CITES II and should not be removed or disturbed in habitat. >> The shiny, basal leaves have a green or bluish color. Two to twelve >> flowers grow on an erect stem with basal leaves. These species are >> successfully cultivated by specialist growers of terrestrial orchids >> and are reported to be difficult to grow, being sensitive to rotting >> and damping off diseases if not properly subjected to a cool and dry >> aestivation period over the summer months with no water. >> >> Pollination >> >> Orchids of the genus Ophrys use sexual deception to attract >> pollinators to their flowers. In sexual deception, an orchid attracts >> male pollinators by producing the sex pheromone of virgin female >> pollinators in addition to providing visual and tactile cues (Schiestl >> 2005; Schluter et al. 2009; Stokl et al. 2009). These signals >> stimulate mating behavior in the male pollinators, which then attempt >> copulation, called “pseudocopulation”, with the orchid labellum >> (Schluter et al. 2009). During pseudocopulation, pollen from the >> flower’s column becomes attached to some part of the pollinator, >> usually the head or abdomen, and the pollinator inadvertently carries >> and transfers this pollen to other flowers when they are once again >> enticed into pseudocopulation. While the morphological cues such as >> the shape and texture of the labellum play a role especially at close >> range in inducing the pollinator mating behavior, the orchid’s >> pheromone mimic, or allomone, has been shown to play the most >> important role in enticing pollinators to the flower (Schiestl 2005; >> Schluter et al. 2009). >> The allomone produced by an orchid is specific to its pollinator, of >> which it usually only has one (Ayasse et al. 2007; Gogler et al. 2009, >> Schluter et al. 2009) . The allomone is a mixture of alkenes and >> alkanes (Schiestl and Cozzolino 2008). There are one or more active >> species in this mixture that account for the attraction of pollinators >> (Vereeken and Schiestl 2008). Pollinators and orchids use the same >> chemical compounds in the same absolute amounts in their pheromones >> and allomones, respectively (Schiestl 2008). >> Every Ophrys orchid has its own pollinator insect and is completely >> dependent on this species for its survival. Duped males are less >> likely to return and may ignore other plants of the same species. Only >> about 10% of an Ophrys population gets pollinated. This is enough to >> preserve the population, since each Ophrys orchid produces about >> 12,000 minute seeds. >> >> Species >> >> The number of species recognized within the genus varies very widely >> between authorities. Flora Europaea in 1980 and Pedersen & Faurholdt >> in 2007 listed about 20 species in Europe as a whole; Buttler in 1991 >> increased this to 53 for slightly larger geographical area; Delforge >> in 1995 gave a total of 130 species. By contrast, a molecular >> phylogenetic study in 2008 suggested that there were around 10 >> distinguishable groups. As of March 2012, the World Checklist of >> Selected Plant Families recognizes 34 species of Ophrys worldwide, >> along with their subspecies. >> >> SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA >> >> -- >> ************************************************************* >> Pankaj Kumar, Ph.D. >> IUCN-SSC Orchid Specialist Group Asia >> >> Office: >> Conservation Officer >> Orchid Conservation Section >> Flora Conservation Department >> Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) Corporation >> Lam Kam Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. >> Residence: >> 151, 1st Floor, Tai Om Tsuen >> Lam Tsuen, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. >> >> email: [email protected]; [email protected] >> Phone: +852 2483 7128 (office - 8:30am to 5:00pm); +852 9436 6251 >> (mobile). Fax: +852 2483 7194 >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "efloraofindia" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- Regards, Dr. Nidhan Singh Assistant Professor Department of Botany I.B. (PG) College Panipat-132103 Haryana Ph.: 09416371227 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
