Month: September 2022

SEXUAL RESPONSE. "Among the oddities of pollination, various forms of sexual deception are perhaps the most unusual. The flowers of some species produce sex pheromone-like odors that attract particular species of male insects. The interaction is often species specific, at least locally. In the case of Orchid galileae, its halictid bee pollinators seem to be attracted by deceptive floral fragrances, but copulatory behavior during pollinating visits does not occur." https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

THE AVERAGE JOHN. "The typical pollinator of a sexually deceptive orchid is a male insect of a species that is polygynous, monandrous, haplodiploid, and solitary rather than social. Insect behaviours involved in the pollination of sexually deceptive orchids include pre-copulatory gripping of flowers, brief entrapment, mating, and very rarely, ejaculation." https://lnkd.in/dp7q3mK View in LinkedIn

NO IMPACT ON SPECIATION. "There is little current evidence that sexual deception drives any species-level selection on pollinators." One opinion. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-185X.2010.00134.x/full View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS the first of two weekends dedicated to the curious orchid family. The nuanced strategies employed by these flowers for reproduction by false representation require a close co-evolution. These plants have no centralized brains, no vertebrate eyes, yet they can mirror the needs of a variety of pollinators with ingenious accuracy, and, according to the theory of evolution, all by dumb trial and error. No wonder Darwin was mesmerized by these clever plants. View in LinkedIn

HAYFLICK LIMIT CONSENSUS. "Since our first tentative suggestion that the finite lifespan of cultured normal human cells was a manifestation of aging at the cellular level, an enormous fund of knowledge has been acquired about the nature of the phenomenon. Few if any of the experimental results that have been reported are completely incompatible with an interpretation that the finite lifetime of cultured normal cells is aging at the cell level." http://protein.bio.msu.ru/biokhimiya/contents/v62/full/62111380.html View in LinkedIn

CORRECTIVE VIEWPOINT. "There is a common belief that Redwood trees and Bristle cone pines can achieve great age. Yet, the cells in these trees, alleged to be thousands of years old, are dead. The living cells in the needles, cambium layer and root hairs are no older than about 30 years. Humans, older than 30 years, who stand in awe of Redwood trees should more accurately stand in awe of their own living post mitotic neurons that are older than the tree’s living cells." https://lnkd.in/esfPTAR View in LinkedIn

NEGLIGIBLE RISK OF DEATH. ""The combination of modular growth and dormancy in perennial plants, two features individually shared with some animals, increases their plasticity and strongly reduces the potential damage caused by aerobic life, to the extreme that the likelihood of dying from aging is, at best, negligible." https://lnkd.in/d5nsZwQ View in LinkedIn

NEGLIGIBLE RISK OF DEATH. ""The combination of modular growth and dormancy in perennial plants, two features individually shared with some animals, increases their plasticity and strongly reduces the potential damage caused by aerobic life, to the extreme that the likelihood of dying from aging is, at best, negligible." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03360.x/full View in LinkedIn

CONTRARIAN. "The quaking aspen clones estimated to be over 10,000 years old, creosote bushes (Larrea tridentate) said to be 11,700 years old, and the 1400 year-old bracken ferns (Pteridium aquilinum) (Oinenen, all suffer from the same criticism." https://lnkd.in/esfPTAR View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT PLANT CLONAL COLONIES. "Pando is a Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen) tree or clonal colony that has been estimated at 80,000 years old. Unlike many other clonal "colonies" the above ground trunks remain connected to each other via a single massive underground root system. Whether it is to be considered a single tree is disputed, as it depends on one's definition of an individual tree." https://lnkd.in/dseQDtg View in LinkedIn