A different kind of encounter with lady's slipper orchids: get to know this unique orchid family plant

Lady's slipper orchids have a parasitic nature. Their seeds are very small, about the size of dust, and therefore cannot carry protein and nutrients. Once they leave the seed pod and are blown to the ground, orchid seeds must draw nutrients from fungi growing nearby. This is a trait shared by all orchids: they all depend on different fungi to help them germinate. Freeloading is their specialty. They parasitize trees, letting their roots trail gracefully so they can obtain nutrients from bird droppings, rotting leaves and other material washed down by rain.

If we look closely at a lady's slipper orchid, what stands out in particular is a forward-projecting lip, which, like an airport runway, lures insects to land on it, as well as a column that stores eggs inside. Any flower will send some semen-like pollen to other plants, or act as a pollinator for the pollen of another orchid genus. No species is capable of self-fertilization. They need flower visitors to pass on their genes.

Lady's slipper orchids are members of the orchid family, and the orchid family is the largest of all plant families, with about 30,000 species in total. This flower is also the most accomplished at deceiving both enemies and prey; they have donned so many disguises in color, shape, fragrance and overall structure that botanists and biologists are still continually discovering new tricks of theirs. Some orchids look and smell very much like female bees, which creates an irresistible lure for the male bees hovering around them. Other orchids closely resemble female wasps, and males of this species will touch them again and again, unable to stop. This indeed helps transfer something semen-like from one orchid to another, making cross-pollination succeed.

For example, in Central America and South America there is an orchid that secretes fragrances, and a particular species of male bee happens to need exactly this substance to court female bees. After the male bee lands on the orchid, it uses the small brushes on its front legs to soak up these precious oils, then stores them in its hollow hind legs, to release later to entice female bees. Its close contact with the orchid results in the transfer of pollen.

There is also an orchid with the scent of carrion, which coaxes nearby carrion flies to come. Some orchids mimic the appearance and fragrance of another kind of flower, using these little tricks to encourage bees that are overcome with confusion. When some bees fly out of the orchid, their backs are so covered with pollen that they can barely fly.

Some say that lady's slipper orchids and all other orchids are nature's most typical gamblers, willingly investing in any venture that could bring a high return. Most lady's slipper orchids have a very high annual reproductive rate, but once pollinated, each kind of flower produces only one seed or a few seeds. By contrast, although only a few lady's slipper orchids reproduce each year, when one does reproduce, what is found is quite astonishing. Mr. Primack, a biologist at Boston University, says they operate by the lottery method: the chance of any flower being visited is very small, but once that flower is pollinated, it benefits many varieties. Most of the 30,000 different orchid species have few of their own kind. They are naturally rare flowers, living high up in trees, or widely scattered across greatly differing regions of the earth. As a survival rule, rare species develop exaggerated, high-risk and quite unusual reproductive strategies; they survive in suitable places according to the rules. Many orchids expend great effort searching for a certain type of pollen collector. Thus, one orchid takes on the appearance of a certain type of female wasp, or becomes interested in a certain type of flying insect, or traps a bee, even trapping the same fool twice. Orchids are patient enough; sooner or later an impatient pollen collector will appear. They are the longest-lived of all flowering plants, and they have very few natural enemies. As a result, orchids survive year after year, and the numbers that survive far exceed those of most plants.

Pink lady's slipper orchids look extremely tender and fresh, and they smell as sweet as honey inside, yet inside they are as sweet as honey and as gentle as a warm and mild trap. When a bee?b> lands on its lower lip hoping for a good drink, the upper lip of the lady's slipper closes, shutting the little bee inside, and the only possible escape route is a passage at the back. As the bee struggles to escape, it must pass a flower stalk, and here it unintentionally picks up some pollen. This experience is unpleasant for anyone, and this bee may never dare go near a lady's slipper orchid again. But for the orchid, the bee's greater caution from then on is not good news, because completing pollination requires two acts of deception: one to have the pollen picked up, and one to have it deposited on another flower. A naturalist who tracked the fate of 1,000 lady's slipper orchids, after fifteen years of research in a forest, found that 23 percent of them were ultimately pollinated.

This can only be called nature's craftsmanship at its most brilliant.