[Music] [Laughter] [Music] fren Greenland but why in this vast ice covered Arctic waste such precise floral engineering the world's smallest tracking [Music] station Sardinia beautiful Island in the Sun speciality kidnapping so why not a plant which follows local custom and [Music] skills or shall we go to Central America where in gathering ingredients for an essential Love Potion insects unwittingly become involved in a most bizarre [Music] encounter Africa could looks be more pure innocent harmless well in reality they conceal a nature which requires at least one death to secure a new generation [Music] and Australia isn't it a bit too obvious for [Music] comment a pod explodes scattering seeds everywhere and life begins again plants hold up their flowers to the light to heaven and the sun to be noticed they are designed for one thing only sex you see the flowers themselves are sex organs and there is no point in conceiving them they burst upon the world with the insistence that life has [Music] Most flowers are bisexual having both male and female organs the female receptive stigma leading to the ovary and the male anthers that produce pollen [Music] they are ready and waiting for the great moment far beyond normal limits of the eye a masterpiece of design the pollen of each species is as individual as a fingerprint it must fit the physical and chemical features of the stigma as precisely as a key fits its lock of course having both male and female organs in one flower it couldn't be easier it would seem to be perfect for self fertilization and some flowers can do just that but evolution requires that most plants be pollinated by another plant of the same species and how on Earth do you manage that when you're literally rooted to the spot well each has developed an intriguing speciality to bridge to overcome the physical separation from another of its kind let's start in [Music] Australia for some species The Bu bush fires which sweep Western Australia every 10 or 15 years are essential to reproduction and right here among the charcoal remains is just the kind of intriguing little speciality we've been talking about in the spring following the Desolation there's a plant an orchid that has just enough energy to throw up one heart-shaped thumbnail size leaf and a very very very long stalk even though it's a rare Orchid it's no great Beauty but nevertheless the inelegant shape is a quite brilliant design for culation but not with another flower no no something much more fascinating than that [Music] slowly fighting her way up through the still charred Sandy ground a newly hatched female a thinned wasp emerges and takes her first look at the world as she lives underground she's no useful wings so she's wingless ant-like and drab anything but beautiful the females climb for only one purpose they want to find males then to go back underground to search out and paralyze Beetle grubs in which to lay their [Music] eggs like a maiden nervously waiting for a blind date she adds the finishing touches at the same time releasing an absolutely irresistible perfume and she waits to clasp her partner with open [Applause] [Music] Jaws elegant the winged males hot on the scent and eager for Action having emerged a few weeks before the females [Music] and they actually start culating in [Music] Flight he flies her to this flower there she feeds through him from the tip of his abdomen and gets both sperm and food all at the same moment and probably the only nectar meal of her life [Music] then he flies her back home the honeymoon over she'll just disappear underground forever so how does the WASP enter into an affair with this unusual Orchid a hammer Orchid it could be coincidence that all the females are still Underground when the orchid flowers but it is quite Beyond coincidence when the flower assumes the shap AP mimics the body and even gives off the scent of the female wasp and this precisely when there are lots of sex starved male wasps around the hinge joint the correct length of arm a glistening sticky pad between two yellow pollen sacks at exactly the right distance from the dummy wasp must have been grown with Incredible accuracy it is perfect for a bizarre coupling of wasp with [Music] flow sufficiently deceived he tries to fly off with her but succeeds only in catapulting himself into the orchid's anthers at last his furry back peels off the yellow pollen bearings Hax he gives up and tears himself free although the goete carries the pollen to other flowers for the orchid's deception to work he must visit another Hammer Orchid like the WASP visiting now bringing male elements to receptive female parts with pollen crushed into its stigma the hammer Orchid is fertilized the little dummy female Withers its purpose served the orchid's meager resources are now required for the swelling seed pod the deception has worked perfectly but does it always if a fale wasp mistimes her entrance is around before all the orchids are pollinated or if the orchid flowers late is he fool well only for a second it would be hard to visual visualize a world without the beauty of grasses few people realize that they too bear [Music] flowers the anthers float their pollen through the air gambling that some may catch on the branching crystall likee stigmas of the female [Music] [Music] [Music] for grasses and most trees sex is born on the Wind huge pollen clouds breathing life onto [Music] everything this blanket bombing Mass proliferation is effective but incredibly wasteful so why not an insect a sort of go between to deliver it with that Personal [Music] Touch there are millions of plants using energy displaying flowers showing Readiness for pollination crowding bunching for the services of these little goet wanting to be noticed so as humans for a film festival can or somewhere they push it around Dress It Up extravagantly in bright colors it P a to advertise myriads of eye-catching shapes designs and patterns as blatant and gy as Picadilly circus and the insects Bewitched and bedazzled wondering whom to call on next are given clear indications in their ultraviolet Vision exactly where to go [Music] it is not a cozy relationship however and it's not for love alas flowers must pay for service the Hard Cash currency of insects pollen itself highly nutritious nectar wax for certain stingless bees to make their cells or the plant can deceive its visitor by making the false offer of sexual satisfaction it is said that the first biologist to discover this Australian euman Wasp actually releasing sperm into a flower it didn't dare publish their [Music] [Music] findings but insects beware you are being used for there is a certain flower with which any association however casual can lead to certain [Music] death as long as there are rewards for favors and services rendered there will always be cheats those who want food for free large bumbles with their long tongues e easily probe the nectar of comrey Telltale holes reveal where small bumblebees unable to get at the nectar have chewed with their strong Jaws to pillage and the honeybee soon learns to draw from the nectaries without entering the flower without touching the reproductive path without doing her stuff so plants have developed quite amazing defensive strategies the teasel going as far as thwarting thieving ants with a carefully constructed water trap or [Music] moat or consider this Ginger it actually employs ants to guard the flow against plunder by the wrong visitor and they are paid from nectaries evolved especially for the ant's use give a little take a little there a [Music] rationale but in nature what appear to be cozy understandings come in fact from the pursuit of Ruthless self-interest the most seemingly innocent offerings can sometimes be deadly the African water lily on the second day of its life quite quite [Music] harmless and what a feast hundreds of stay mens all capped with pollen like giant lollipops [Music] and away he flies but what a difference on the first day of its life for only then does the Lily have that awful need to kill does it have that that inviting pool of crystal clear liquid in the [Music] center what looks like nectar is not nectar at all it is a deadly poison and what is more the overhanging stams at this moment as smooth as silk [Music] down [Music] dead just just a few last nervous [Music] Twitches night falls and the reason for what seemed a pointless death is now revealed inside the floral tomb the lethal liquid washes the pollen grains from the victim's body Souvenirs of older Kinder lies they sink to fertilize the eggs [Music] below so remember if you're going to drop in on a lily be sure to get your timing right it can be more than your life is worth to visit a virgin flower as our little hoverfly [Music] did the competition for survival molds all living things things for ever greater success in reproduction and plants are no exception many flowers have evolved characteristics to suit only certain pollinators night flowers scented for moths or bats some methods are very sophisticated Buzz pollination the release of pollen by ultrasonic vibrations [Music] digitalis Fox gloves or finger Huts popular poison for the faint of heart lures bees to the bottom Thimbles first to make sure all are visited in [Music] turn the Fig wart has a special flower for wasps hyenas of the insect world only not quite special enough to prevent a marauding ant from stealing nectar without transferring [Music] pollen the trigger plant is a brilliant [Music] design the hit [Music] and a miss oh well you can't win them all [Music] [Music] many desert plants rely on ants the whole design of this North American Plant is typical it grows near the ground the leaves and stem intertwin to form aerial walkways so ants can go from nectar to nectar with minimum effort the flowers themselves are minute they don't need to be big they're not signaling to Insects over long distances as the ant takes the nectar the stammen anoints its head with a few pollen grains for the next plant but of course not all all go between are insects anything that wittingly or unwittingly can reliably FY pollen from flower to flower will do the pig me possum eats moths insects in fact almost anything it eats pollen too and in doing so transfers it and becomes one of a very select band of pollinating mammals [Music] [Music] but it is flight which makes most creatures good pollinators and some plants have evolved D to make use of birds providing huge quantities of nectar even changing their flowers in size shape and color look at the kangaroo's pore it provides a furry stem for a honey eater to perch on as it draws from the nectaries the plant's mechanism works powdering the bird's head with pollen there no lack of invention with stalia the sex organs themselves form the perch cleverly designed to be totally insecure it's like trying to balance on the slippery pole and inevitably the bird puts its foot in it here and elsewhere no doubt until recently there was argument about fertilization of The Magnificent African Proteus for some species birds are obvious candidates they live on the plants guarding their nest and food food supply at the same time and the Proteus just to make sure expose their flowers to the heavens so that Sunbirds from all over can take their choice then why do some species have hidden flowers near the ground growing downwards [Music] [Music] me meow [Music] this proteo has opted for mice less conventional but possibly more reliable already totally adapted to a nectar diet is the Australian honey possum the trapes artist of the marsupial world with half a dozen teeth and enormously long tongue it has an amazing capacity for drink or be it nectar grasping fingers and a gripping tail enable it to live in the tops of trees many of which have evolved flowers which offer a copious supply of nectar especially for this delightful Little Dipper [Music] in Central America nectar Rich flowers have evolved for hummingbirds and at last The Secret of Ginger's love life can be revealed guarded by ants it's strictly for the birds oh [Applause] [Music] with prodigious appetites for nectar Hummers have become the Willing slaves of the plant reproductive strategy to be successful plants may appear to us to be beautiful ugly even revolting depending on whom they're trying to attract whom to deceive in style more appropriate for ancient Egyptian kings blowflies pay a last tribute to the Dead by laying their little gifts their eggs upon the corpse and soon their maggots had the gruesome but necessary task of eating the world free from putrifying flesh and stinking carum [Music] [Music] [Music] it is difficult to believe that on a beautiful uninhabited island off the coast of Sardinia there is a plant which has adopted these very blowflies as its goet this Lily a kind of AR is surely a conception of the marid desad in the chamber below is a most elaborate structure a dark passage with a huge Central column supporting a battery of male stamin beneath is a crown of spikes guarding a second battery of female flowers the perfume of this flower the stench of a rotting corpse is so powerful that it is irresistible to flies which swarm in from all over the island from the first day the flower opens female flies land and start to search for the danst and darkest place to lay their eggs they make for the Deep hairy throat which becomes as they par the guard hairs a oneway street up which there can be no return for at least 2 days or maybe not at [Music] all they feed on nectar oblivious of danger any pollen they might by chance be carrying is brushed off on the receptive female flowers as they reach the murky depths so good so real istic is the foul smell of car so brilliant the deception the Flies actually lay their eggs pointlessly for even though they hatch the maggots find no real caran nothing on which to feast and die of hunger on the second day of kidnapping the male stamans burst open and shower The Wretched captives with sticky [Music] [Music] pollen the first casualties occur in this insect charnal house exhausted flies are trampled to death by fellow inmates however to kill is not the intention nor is it at all in the plant's interest on the third day the guard hairs wither and the survivors find themselves suddenly able to escape Dusty with pollen they emerge groggy but still eager to find a bit of real Rotting Flesh or as the plant intends and into another chamber of [Music] Horrors but why is this arum found here only on some small Mediterranean Islands the resident gulls with their chick births smelly regurgitated food and inevitable deaths are probably part of the reason for there would naturally be blowflies about only to we easily duped and kidnapped of course there is a risk to the goet but sometimes the risk is to the pollen itself [Music] water in which the first Seeds of Life were born still plays an important part in Floral reproduction like weightless Moon white rocks these tiny male flowers will float on the surface at the whim of the Restless wind a flowering plant which has returned to the world from which all plants come has readapted to a life in water the extraordinary valisia or Ribbon weed produces entirely separate male and female plants the female sends up a long coiled stalk [Music] at the end the tantalizing female flower rests in the shallow dimple in the surface [Music] tension simultaneously a flask at the base of the maale plant is forced open by oxygen bubbles it releases tiny male flowers which which start to drift up to the surface where the female lies in [Music] weight but it's a hazardous [Music] Voyage pollen is nutritious each tender white morsel caviar to The Fish World [Music] it is of course absolutely essential that some get through the plant releases more and more and it releases them at [Music] night of many thousands even with luck perhaps only a 100 or so break the surface there they float like mini icebergs until each transforms [Music] [Applause] itself petals bend over to form a raft pushing the pollen Jewel like crystals up on a glistening stalk Exquisite and delicate they are nevertheless absolutely functional [Music] but even on the surface they're never safe there's always a Jaws or two down below the female covered with minute water repellent hairs [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Waits when the little rafts of pollen are within a couple of Cent M of the female they are irreversibly set on a course to slide down the slippery slope straight into her huge [Music] Embrace and the fish which so eagerly gobbled the flowers before will now be instrumental in dispersing the seeds [Music] [Music] from pinpoint sized icebergs to the real thing Greenland in the full flush of a five we summer even then it's chilly enough to send any pollinator into a frozen stuper yet flow abound despite the cold reproduction is imperative but it's awfully difficult to get things going and that's exactly the problem but not perhaps for one little Arctic Rose Drass it has evolved a method that matches Space Age Technology like a radio telescope the petals reflect the sun's Rays as efficiently as gold foil the parabolic shape concentrates warmth at the center exactly on the stamin and stigma in a cold place heat and food are powerful attractions a visiting insect finds it as much as 10° warmer in that private Place in the Sun the insects are hot and fit for flying after only a few minutes and as plann and they go on to the next plant with such a short summer the goet must work round the clock but then there are no nights the Sun never vanishes below the Horizon in the Arctic summer the strangest part of this plant is its rotating stem which allows it to track the sun to 24 hours a day never more than 2° off course beautifully engineered the world's smallest tracking stations floral strategies come in many shapes and sizes short and sweet on Ice strange and chany are under [Music] waterer kidnapped and kept in [Music] Sardinia delicate but deadly with [Music] Lily but no sexual encounter of the floral kind is more strange than that found in the steamy still rainforests of South America [Music] trees crowding out the sky no gentle breeze to Bear the magic dust of [Music] life more orchids than any botanist can name and yet for many species is there can only be one pollinator only one bee to unlock the secret combination of its sex [Music] life the Orchid with the most complex flower the most bizarre and outrageous strategy is Coran the bucket Orchid it CLE to branches with its roots embedded in a nest of ants which guard it and Supply it with nutrients but the ants do not pollinate it this is done exclusively by a species of beautiful iridescent Orchid be the plants one and only pollinator in the early morning the Orchid opens almost immediately it begins to drip a clear fluid from two glands into the bucket part of the flow at the same time the Orchid gives off a scent highly attractive to its pollinators its little male [Music] bees but the bees come because their chance of reproducing depends on what the Orchid is offering it is a waxy substance they scrape off with specially modified front legs to make a perfume a sort of Afrodisiac essential to attract and stimulate female bees no wonder males fly in from up to 5 miles away [Music] in the ensuing dog fight the inevitable accident occurs though it's no accident as far as the Orchid is concerned the purpose of the fluid now becomes clear unlike the water lily the orchid's intention is not to kill its victim early enough it must now start to help him to escape [Music] the bee is on the point of drowning when it discovers a small Escape tunnel with a rather conveniently placed step just when it seems nothing can prevent escape the top and bottom of the tunnel close in holding the bee in a vice likee grip [Music] struggle and strain as he might he is held firm while the Orchid glues two little yellow pollen sacks on his back [Music] it takes about 10 minutes for the glue to set and only then does the Orchid release him the bee is now fully fledged to go between but he must wait to dry to complete his [Music] Escape but the Orchid sexual plan is far from complete bees which bear no pollen merely pass through the system it must wait for one carrying pollen Sachs from another orbid before it can be fertilized but what a difference when this bee tries to make its escape the flower has a device which grabs the pollen Sac from his back there the amazingly complex plan has worked [Music] [Laughter] [Music] despite its apparently foolproof design kianes is taking an awful risk where its bees to disappear even become scarce in numbers this beautiful Orchid would vanish [Music] forever whatever the plant whatever the means the seeds must set and it is of great concern to us all those seeds contain a our future too floral sex is no less important than human or animal sex without it there would be no life on Earth as we know it nothing [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music]