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On the method of fertilization in Bulbophyllum macranthum, and allied Orchids

1890; Oxford University Press; Volume: os-4; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/oxfordjournals.aob.a090567

1095-8290

H. N. Ridley,

Ecology and Conservation Studies

A LL who have examined the flowers of any species of Cirrhopetalum, or Bulbophyllum, cannot fail to have remarked the singular arrangement of the lip, which is usually small and inconspicuous, especially when compared with the lateral sepals, and is so loosely articulated with the prolonged foot of the column as to be exceedingly mobile, frequently being kept in a constant state of vibration by every current of air.How this state of affairs conduced to insect fertilization was altogether obscure.Darwin, in the Fertilization of Orchids, p. 138, states, after examining several species of Bulbophyllum, e. g.B. cupreum,B.cocoinum, and B. Rhizophorae, that he was quite unable to conjecture the use of this extreme mobility of lip, unless it were to attract the attention of insects ; adding that possibly in the case of B. barbigerum and a few other species in which the lip is decorated with tufts of very delicate clubbed hairs, this may play some part in calling the attention of the fertilizer.But I shall hope to show an entirely different reason for this arrangement, which, especially in the case of B. macranthum, is I think one of the most beautiful and marvellous among all those in the Order.