At 03:37 PM 12/15/2004 -0600, you wrote: >I have to agree with one of my colleagues when he said, "I agree that >religion is important in society but I reject the underlying premises." Go >Darwin. > >Speaking of the evolution of orchids, I am familiar with the co-evolutionary >pollination strategies which account for the structures of many orchid >flowers. However, I have never seen an explanation for the twisting of the >anther and lip in Ludisia discolor. I assume this is also a co-evolutionary >feature relating to a pollination strategy. Could anybody explain the >uncommon lack of symmetry in the flower of this species? Dave
while I cannot speak to the advantage of having an off-axis lip in Ludisia, I can speak to the fact that there are other orchids with asymmetrical flowers...many Mormodes have twisted flowers. Also, Tipularia discolor, native to the eastern United States, has asymmetrical flowers with the lip askew one direction and the dorsal sepal and petals skewed the other direction. ---Prem www.premdesign.com _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
