From the rainforests of Borneo, Madagascar, and Central America to the roadsides of northern Europe and North America, Steve Nicholls, a wildlife filmmaker with a lifelong interest in botany and horticulture, explores the extraordinary beauty of the mysterious and romantic orchid.
But in nature, such beauty always serves a purpose. For orchids, it’s a way of ensuring pollination. They need the help of insects to move pollen from plant to plant, and many use nectar as a reward, as do many familiar plants. But there’s a dark side to orchids: a world of trickery and deception.
About half of all orchids don’t produce nectar, so why do insects pollinate them? Some lure insects with the promise of sex, and others have equally fiendish ways of convincing insects that the flowers are worth visiting. Still others provide the ingredients for male bees to make a perfume that females find irresistible.
Since many orchids grow in remote and inaccessible places, there remain many secrets to uncover— but it's certain that orchids present some of the finest examples of the amazing intricacies wrought by natural selection.
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