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In this episode, we ask the question, how
do orchids attract pollinators?
Hey.
Josh Bernstein here.
I'm on my way to the Smithsonian Gardens.
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The Smithsonian Gardens facility is
located in Suitland, Maryland, where 8,500 specimens of plants
are cultivated from 2,500 different species.
Hundreds of orchids from the Gardens
are displayed in Smithsonian museums,
including a special exhibit at the National
Museum of Natural History every two years.
Orchids are the largest and most diverse
family of flowering plants on the planet.
And arguably, the most loved.
Hi.
How are you?
I'm fine.
I'm going to the Gardens.
OK.
The Smithsonian Gardens facility is not normally open
to the public.
I've arranged to meet orchid collection specialist, Tom
Mirenda, in one of the two orchid greenhouses.
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How's it going, Tom?
Great.
Good to meet you, at last--
Great to meet you.
Why the fascination with orchids?
What makes them so special?
God, well, orchids are infinitely diverse.
They're just incredible creatures, full of beauty,
charm, and novelty.
A lot of people, when they look at orchids,
they see beautiful flowers, or their size, their shape.
But what is it that you see?
The fact is they're way more than just beautiful.
They're actually really fascinating creatures
that are perfectly adapted to their environment.
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Orchids can be found on every continent, but Antarctica.
from the tops of mountains, to beachfronts,
swamps, to semi-desert.
Most species reproduce by luring pollinators
like bees, hummingbirds, and moths.
OK.
Plants are stuck in trees.
They can't go to singles bars, and, you know, like,
meet each other.
So they need an intermediary, usually a flying pollinator
of some kind.
Tom tells me a flying pollinator usually
lands on the labellum, or the lip of the orchid,
looking for nectar.
The lip is a modified petal.
That's like the runway at an airport.
It's, like, what the pollinator sees,
that basically tells it where to go.
They look like they have nectar, but they don't.
They're tricking the pollinator into visiting.
Once lured inside the orchid, the pollinators
pick up a sticky residue of pollen grains on their body.
Pollen contains the male reproductive cells
that are needed for plants to reproduce.
And it's put there surreptitiously by the plant.
I mean, these plants are total manipulators.
He can't get it off.
He probably doesn't even know it's there.
OK.
And then he'll put it on a flower some distance away.
And--
So--
--the genetic diversity--
But here comes the bee with the pollen from another flower.
Go ahead.
Comes in--
Pollinate it.
Mm--
Over millions of years, orchids have
evolved to better lure their specific pollinator.
Tom leads me to one of his rare African specimens.
Very, very special plant called Angraecum sesquipedale.
And--
Wait, wait.
Angraecum sesquipedale?
Yeah.
What a crazy name, right?
What does--
This orchid, which grows in Madagascar,
has a nectar spur or tube, that reaches
a foot and a half in length.
Tom tells me the scientist, Charles Darwin,
had a profound response when he first saw this flower.
He famously uttered, good heavens,
what insect could suck it?
And--
(CHUCKLING) Seriously?
That's the quote, yes.
Good accent, too.
And-- thank you.
I'm here all week.
(LAUGHING) OK.
He had all kinds of theories of evolution.
Orchids actually helped Darwin figure out his theories.
And this is one of the flowers that he wrote about.
He actually wrote a whole--
Tom explains that, based on a number of features,
Darwin determined what type of insect
could pollinate this orchid.
So Darwin looks at these data points, right?
It's got the white flower.
So it suggests nighttime.
Mm-hmm.
So he's thinking, moth.
And then when he sees the large nectar spur,
he thinks, OK, it's got to be a moth with a 12-inch tongue.
That's unbelievable, right?
Yeah, yeah.
At the time, everyone thought Darwin was crazy.
How could there be a moth with such a long proboscis,
or feeding tube?
But a few decades later, scientists in Madagascar
discovered a hawk moth with a 12-inch proboscis.
Today, enthusiasts refer to this flower as Darwin's orchid.
To have this orchid here in the collection is a point of pride?
Absolutely.
Historically, Tom says orchids relied on flying pollinators
to propagate and survive.
But botanists now ensure the orchid's survival
through genetic breeding.
When you breed something from seed,
you get a lot of diversity within the gene pool.
And the very, very best ones are then selected to be cloned.
A little piece of tissue was taken from the new growth,
and then chopped up into a bunch of tiny pieces, which
are then able to be propagated into individual plants.
When you say these are clones, does this
mean that they branch the same way?
They flower the same way?
They're, like, exact clones?
Sometimes strange little things happen in the cloning process.
But for the most part, they're completely identical.
They are genetically programmed to do the exact same thing.
What you're seeing here are all man-made creations.
This is the breeder's art expressed.
These genetically-cloned plants take time.
In some cases, it takes breeders years of trial and error,
to realize their vision of the perfect orchid.
So orchid breeders have to have the patience [CHUCKLES] to wait
for the product that they're trying--
Yes, you have to start young.
What is the responsibility then of the Smithsonian Gardens,
regarding orchids in particular?
Genetics need to be preserved.
I mean, every single one of these things is unique.
We want to make sure that these things survive.
Not just for us, or even for the next generation,
but in perpetuity.
Nature has already done an amazing job
in helping orchids survive.
However, sometimes nature needs a bit of a helping hand.
Botanists, such as Tom, help ensure
that these beautiful plants will be around for everyone
to enjoy for a long time to come.
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