Mysterious Nature

Facts about trees and plants.

1. What strategies do plants use to survive?

 Amazing adaptive and regenerative abilities are a plant’s most important survival strategies. This is why plants can be found growing in the most extreme locations from deserts to mountains. Some able to withstand high salt concentrations and periods of drought, while others survive temperatures as low as -80˚C. If a plant is injured or suffers some other form of stress, its recovery will often be amazingly rapid. 

 2. Why are flowers colorful?

Red, orange, yellow, blue and lilac- whatever the hue, the spectacular colours of flowers are all tools in the service of reproduction. Plants use the bright colours of their blooms to attract pollinators such as insects and birds. This also explains why the flowers of the plants that are pollinated solely by the wind, such as grasses, tend to be rather nondescript. They don’t need to look attractive.         Some flowers, like that of the hours chestnut, will even inform their pollinators when it’s no longer worth paying them a visit. Brown stains develop inside the bloom as soon as it fully harvested and it's empty. Pollinators then lose all interests in the flower and can be target other, more inviting blooms.

3. Why are so few flowers blue?

One of the reasons for the rarity of blue flowers is the complex chemistry of flower colour. This is why all attempts at bleeding a blue rose have failed so far. The blue colour is the result of the interaction of many factors. Acidity or alkalinity have to be just right, and certain metal-complex pigments – organic molecules that can combine in metals – need to be present. Hydrangeas, for example, are only blue if the soil in which they grow contains sufficient quantities of aluminum, a metal that is able to combine with their pigments. Cornflowers are blue because the pigments they contain combine with iron or aluminium ions.       Another reason for the scarcity of blue flowers is evolutionary, and a result of the close relationship that has developed between flowers and their pollinators. Birds are attracted to red flowers, whereas beetles, moths and flies tend to prefer creamy colours. Bees can’t perceive the color red, which is why they tend to be attracted by white and yellow flowers, although they like blue flowers as well. However because the contrast between green foliage and white are yellow flowers is much greater then it is between blue flowers and foliage, this gives the brighter colours an advantage, which is why they occur more frequently.

 4. How do pitcher plants catch their prey?

Pitcher plants, such as Nepenthes sp., lure their prey with sweet nectar and then rely on their hapless victims aqua-planting to their doom. The nectar is produced on the edges of the pitchers or traps. Insects that land to sample the nectar lose their footing on the thin film of slippery liquid and slide into the pitcher and the pool of the water it often contains.              Even if the pitcher is dry, it is easy for insects to lose their foothold. This is because many pitchers plants have tiny slippery wax leaves covering their surface. In the case of the so-called ‘fanged pitcher plant’ Nepenthes sp. the surface structure is such that the insects are able to get a grip in one direction only- downwards and into the pitcher. There is nothing to help them climb back up to the rim because the surface is made up of circular grooves with the stepped structure, and all of the steps lead down into the pitcher’s interior.

5. What is the deception flowers?

Plants use many tricks to deceive insects in order to attract them for the purpose of pollination. The aptly named deception flowers, for example, lure pollinating insects with the perfume that appears to promise a rich source of food, even though the plant doesn’t actually deliver on the promise. Various orchids, such as the fly orchid, look and smell remarkable like a female of the insect species that are responsible for pollinating them. This encourages the insects to fly from the flower to flower in meeting frenzy, transferring pollen in the process. Carrion flowers imitate the smell of dung or carrion which attracts flies that then lay their eggs. The unfortunate maggots, when they hatch from the eggs, simply starve to death.