Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 2, September 1900: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 2, September 1900: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
One of the most remarkable cases of insect-pollination is that shown
by the ordinary Yucca, which is pollinated by a small moth, the plant
and the moth being very dependent upon one another. The flowers of
Yucca occur in very large prominent clusters, and hang like bells. In
each bell-shaped flower there are six hanging stamens, and a central
ovary ribbed lengthwise like a melon. At the tip of the ovary is a
funnel-shaped opening, which is the stigma. During the day the moth
hides quietly in the recesses of the flower, but at dusk she becomes
very active. She travels down the stamens, and, resting on the open
anthers, scrapes out the somewhat sticky pollen with her front legs.
Holding the little mass of pollen she runs up on the ovary, stands
astride of one of the furrows, pierces through the wall with her
ovipositor, and deposits an egg in an ovule. After depositing several
eggs, she runs to the apex of the ovary and begins to crowd the mass
of pollen she has collected into the funnel-like stigma. These actions
are repeated several times, until many eggs are deposited and repeated
pollination has been effected. As a result of all this, the flower is
pollinated and seeds are formed, which develop abundant nourishment for
the moth larvae, whose eggs had been laid in the ovule. Just how the
insect learned that this behavior on her part would secure food for her
young is hard to imagine.
In studying any flower there are three questions that should be asked:
(1) How does it hinder self-pollination?; (2) How does it secure
cross-pollination?; (3) How does it discourage the visits of unsuitable
insects?
John Merle Coulter.
THE ASTERS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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