Betsy:Amazing Orchids

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It is now orchid season here in northern Israel. For its size, Israel has an amazing diversity of terrestrial orchid species (28 species), and Mount Carmel, on which Haifa is situated, is home to 21 of them. We recently discovered a trail around the sides of the hill on top of which sits our neighborhood, Vardiya. Along this trail are the ruined foundations of old buildings and lots of areas with rock outcrops and very thin soil. Trees and shrubs can’t survive in the thin soil and among the old foundations, so these areas are havens for wildflowers. We have found hundreds of orchid plants with four species in bloom so far. Some of these orchid flowers are beautiful, for example the delicate butterfly orchid (Orchis papilionacea, aka O. caspia), but my favorites by far are the amazing bee orchids (see next paragraph for their story), mostly in the genus Ophrys. On our hillside, we have found the Carmel bee orchid (O. umbilicata aka O. carmeli), and the yellow Ophrys orchid (O. lutea). Near the University, we found a third Ophrys species, the somber bee orchid (O. israelitica aka O. fleishmannii). Along our neighborhood trail, there are several other clearly different orchid species that are yet to flower. I’ll post as they bloom.


In the Mediterranean region, there are around 50 species in the genus Ophrys, and the flowers of all of them resemble bees. These orchids attract pollinators not with the promise of nectar or pollen, but with a false promise of sex. The flowers of these orchids have evolved to resemble female bees or wasps in color, form, size, hairiness, and pheromone scent. Males of the target insect species pick up and deliver pollen clusters during their futile attempts to mate with the flowers. Such deception is apparently an effective strategy, in that there are at least a hundred species of these sexual-deceptive orchids in the Mediterranean region and perhaps another 300 in Australia and yet more in South Africa. One of the interesting findings of recent research on the Australian species is that the chemical pheromones are the most important factor…the flower doesn’t have to look that much like a female insect. If it smells (to a male) enough like one, it will be irresistible. If you’re interested in knowing more about these orchids, here are a few websites that contain pictures and short interesting stories about them:



http://whyfiles.org/shorties/139sex_deception/;
http://www.scienceinpublic.com/sciencenow/2007/orchidsex.htm; http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s142806.htm; http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s598415.htm.

Many orchids also use food deception…their flowers mimic flowers of other plants that produce abundant nectar. When the pollinators come for their nectar reward, they find nothing, but they generally pick up pollen packets in probing the flower. Altogether, about 1/3 of the estimated 18,500 orchid species are thought to swindle their pollinators in one way or the other. Why so many orchid species are deceptive, and whether it has something to do with their astounding evolutionary success, are open evolutionary questions.

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Comments

[Karen Bloustine]

Thank you
It is wonderful that you are sharing your Israeli experience via the Temple "Shabbat Shalom" announcements. KB