Coryanthes bruchmuellerii

[Paph Yeo]

[pavel]

Nice photos, Yeo! While Corys will never win any beauty prizes (unless the judge is blind), the flowers are bizarrely interesting.

[zainal abidin]

One of the heaviest flower in this genera may reach up to 100 gm so nice.

[catttan]

I agree with Pavel. Interestig

[Ron-NY]

Bucket orchids are very interesting. Cool!

[Teena]

It looks like an alien lifeform clinging to a stem and then there was the photo of the side that looked like a human nose. Very strange flower indeed. - martha

[Ron-NY]

It looks like an alien lifeform clinging to a stem and then there was the photo of the side that looked like a human nose. Very strange flower indeed. - martha

The flower is an excellent example of coevolution and mutualism, as the orchids have evolved along with orchid bees. The flower is designed to trap a bee, for fertilization purposes. It is one of the most complex flowers of the orchid family. It is a very interesting process. Coryanthes are pollinated by Male bees of the genera Euglossa, Eulaema and Euplusia are the sole pollenators of the Coryanthes. They are attracted to the plant by the flower's heavy odor. The bee lands on the hypochile and searches for the fragrance compounds. When the bee goes below the hood it looses it's footing on the hard waxy mesochile surface and falls into the bucket which is filled with a mucilaginous liquid which the plant secretes from the pleuridia, or faucet gland, which is at the base of the column. The bees only escape is to crawl through the tunnel formed by the epichile of the lip and the column. The bee first topuches the stigma and then the gluey viscidium which attaches to the back of the bee. The most incredible part of this process is that the same bee has to go and fall into a flower again to achieve pollination.

[Teena]

Amazing, thanks Ron - martha

[Cjcorner]

The flower is just amazing looking. And I love that the stupid fly has to fall into the flowers over and over. Sounds like me and chocolate...

[pavel]

As Ron mentioned, this is an example of mutualism -- a relationship in which both parties benefit. And in this case, the benefit to both parties is directly related to sex.

The benefit to the orchid is obvious -- it gets pollinated.

For the bee, it is a little less straight forward but no less important with regards to reproduction. Recall that Ron mentioned only male bees pollinate the Corys. And being an example of mutualism, the bee must be getting something out of the deal -- unlike those orchids which trick male wasps into attempting to mate with them (a relationship which does not benefit the male wasp and thus is not mutualistic). Male bees of the genera Euglossa, Eulaema and Euplusia produce pheromones to attract a female. However, they are not able to produce the pheromones completely on their own. They must gather the raw materials from a number of sources and from these materials the pheromones are produced. Males who do not succeed in gathering all the necessary materials will produce inferior pheromones and as a result are less likely to attract a mate. The waxy fragrant compounds produced by the flowers of Coryanthes are among the key ingredients needed for the manufacture of the female attracting pheromones.

Now you probably know more than you ever wanted to about the Coryanthes-bee relationship.