Plants Mimic Insects!

Web Link: http://www.morning-earth.org/Graphic-E/Transf-Mimic.html

Plants use mimicy too, not just animals. Orchid mimicry is of both form and chemistry. Many orchids mimic the shapes of certain flying insect females, and at the same time mimic the lure of her mating scent, so the bewildered male arrives and "mates with the orchid flower that looks and smells just right, and in the process pollinates the flower.

Figure:1















Bee tricked by Orchid

Figure: 2















Bee falls in love

Figure: 3
















Orchid flower
mimics bee

Figure: 4















Mimics Fly
"Eyes"below
"antennae"
are really globes
of pollen