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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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