[Pollinator] Fwd: Tornados and Orchids

Tue Apr 19 10:27:19 PDT 2011

____________________________________
 From: bernhap2 at slu.edu
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Sent: 4/19/2011 8:11:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight  Time
Subj: Fwd: Tornados and Orchids

Dear Colleagues:  

While Saint Louis escaped the cluster of 250 tornados that hit the  
American south a couple of days ago we may have serious problems today as  violent 
thunderstorms will pass through the city area and suburbs over the  daylight 
hours.  Hail stones are reported to be ping pong ball to egg  sized.  I 
wanted to contact you now as the power could go out.  As  St. Louis University 
is Catholic (Jesuit) we will be closed April 21-25  reopening the morning of 
April 26 so don't worry about a long silence.  

The attached paper appeared on Monday in the "Proceeding of the National  
Academy of Science." Please forgive the title,  I could not resist the  word 
play (my paternal grandfather had a brief career in vaudeville).  The 
association with the Kunming Botanical Institute (see their online  site, very 
impressive) occurred when I was contacted by Ren Zong-Xin who was  trying to 
finish his PhD 15 months ago and had only one more season of  fieldwork.  His 
results were not "adding up" as the flower-insect  interactions were not 
typical of the "mushroom mimicry" reported in the  Australian helmet orchids 
(Corybas).  I suggested a new course of field  techniques based on some recent 
literature.  As new data came in I  suggested he coat his flies with gold 
and put them under the scanning electron  microscope to see if they carried 
germinating fungal spores as well as orchid  pollen.  It became clear that 
this orchid was "pretending to be sick"  after I went to the library at the 
Missouri Botanical Garden and read up about  how infectious fungi make nectar 
and special odors to lure flies onto diseased  leaves to carry away their 
spores.  Ren's study reminded me of the famous  poem by WIlliam Blake (below) 
but, this time, the flower exploits the "dark  secret love" of the invisible 
worm.   

For your information, "Science" and "Nature" refused to send our  
manuscript out for review.  Ren received his PhD a couple of months ago  and is now 
working for the Kunming Institute in a new department.    Sometimes there are 
positive endings. 

The  Sick Rose

BY _WILLIAM BLAKE_ (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-blake)   

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret  love

Does  thy life destroy.

Sincerely,  Peter  

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