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BROOD SITE SELECTION. "Several unrelated orchid genera have flowers that mimic larval food substrates that attract gravid insects. For example, the protuberances on the labellum of Epipactis consimilis are thought to mimic aphids which stimulate egg-laying behavior of aphidophagous syrphid flies." https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

TERRITORIAL DEFENSE. "Some Oncidium species exploit territorial Centris bees. The flowers, usually produced on long panicles, are thought to mimic territorial intruders as they dance in the wind. Presumably, the movement captures the attention of the bees, which repeatedly attack the flowers and pollinate them in the process." https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTIONARY IMPACT. "Deceit pollination—via mimicry of food sources, nesting sites or potential mates—significantly increased speciation and extinction rates but resulted in a small decrease in net diversification within lineages." http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1814/20151553 View in LinkedIn

OFF THE CURVE. "The ability to attract pollinators without offering them a reward has evolved independently in many angiosperm lineages, but usually in only a few species per family. In contrast, it has been estimated that around one-third of orchid species are pollinated by ‘food-deception’." http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/content/59/5/1085.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

"DECEIT POLLINATION evolved at least once, in the stem group of all orchids except Apostasioideae, and then was lost" in 21 other groups. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1814/20151553 View in LinkedIn

"FRAUDS are imposters, individuals who cheat and deceive. They abound in many facets of nature. Among flowering plants, perhaps the most infamous frauds are the orchids. Flowers of a third or more of the Orchidsceae deceive their pollinators by some means or another. Obviously, this is a rather disreputable family." A lovely Victorian voice. https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

UNRIVALLED AMONGST PLANTS. "The diversity of plant–pollinator interactions in orchids is unrivalled by any other group of plants. The spectacular floral diversity of orchids, and the fact that many are pollinated by a single species, has led to an historic belief that pollinator isolation is the predominant reproductive barrier in the family." https://lnkd.in/dU8FUkt View in LinkedIn

DRIVERS OF ORCHID DIVERSITY. "The evolution of pollinia, specialization on individual pollinators or mycorrhizal fungi, pollination via deceit, euglossine bees or Lepidoptera, epiphytism per se or associated traits such as CAM photosynthesis, and predominant distribution in the tropics (and especially in extensive cordilleras) have all been proposed as drivers of the extraordinary species richness of orchids." http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1814/20151553 View in LinkedIn

SUPERLATIVE ON MANY FRONTS. "Orchids display extraordinary floral diversity, with striking adaptations to different pollinators among close relatives, partitioning of individual pollinators by precise placement of pollen packets (pollinia) on different parts of their bodies, and extreme convergence and divergence among crossable taxa." http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1814/20151553 View in LinkedIn

MOST DIVERSIFIED. "The highest rate of net species diversification within the orchids (0.382 sp sp−1 My−1) is 6.8 times that at the Asparagales crown." http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1814/20151553 View in LinkedIn