Oh, there it is! Come, stand close, and look carefully. What do you see inside the pouch of this strange little yellow flower? See that tiny bright-metallic green bee struggling for life? Apparently it’s drowning. For sure, its life is over-unless.
During graduate school a friend had the opportunity of spending several weeks studying in the cloud forests of southern Mexico. Plants grow on top of and all over other plants in those hot, humid plant-growing environments. One fascinating plant that grows there is the tiny Bucket orchid named for a big pouch that it fills with a fluid of its own making. Most of the bucket has downward-pointing hairs and a very slick surface. But in one area of the bucket are little pegs or stepping-stones that serve an important function.
You see, Bucket orchids attract some miniature bees-but only the male bees, because they actively gather a scented wax produced by the flower. Male bees gather this wax with their front legs and pack it into a special pocket on their hind leg where they store it for an important future use. That wax is a love potion that the tiny males use to attract females.
Bucket orchid wax is secreted in small quantities on a slender little vertical column centered over the fluid-filled bucket. The column is very slippery. You guessed it. Male bees hover around the flower, trying to figure out how to get the wax. Some of them fall in and get trapped in the fluid. They struggle mightily to escape. But the death trap has only one way to get out. When their flailing feet find the little pegs, they follow that solid footing up into a little chamber, high and dry in the flower, where the plant has hidden a couple pollen sacs. As bees reach the chamber they see the way out-a door or passageway. But the passage is extremely tight, and as he squeezes through, the little pollen sacs stick to his back. The bee works and .works at getting out, sometimes requiring 30 minutes to an hour of hard work. During that time the glue that attaches the pollen sac to his back has become dry enough to hold it there. Finally he is released to try his luck with another flower, which gets pollinated in a reenactment.