Rare Orchid Spreads its Petals

Posted on November 17, 2009 with No Comments

Rare Orchid Spreads its Petals

Rare Orchid Spreads its Petals

At the Ball Sate University campus, there is a special flower in bloom, the Bucket Orchid from the Wheeler Orchid and Species Bank.

The university acquired some grant money in the summer and Curator Charyl LeBlanc purchased the flower with it.

The Amazon of South Africa is the home of this flower, which thrives with the help of male bumblebees helping it reproduce and get pollen. The flower stores liquid in its bucket, which draws male bees.

There is more than one motivation for the male bees to visit this flower, when the bees fall into the bucket, there is a bucket-like part which they slide through, when they come out the other end they able to pollinate flowers, and to attract female bumblebees with their sweet scent.

LeBlanc Says, “ (Bucket Orchids) are not common at all in greenhouse collections, and they’re more uncommonly bloomed in those collections,”

The little bud took some time to flower, and the blooming of the orchid itself took 15 to 20 hours, and it is possible that the flower will never bloom again.

Sources:

http://www.newslinkindiana.com/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=Headlines&refno=3262