Scientists found the first case of relying on rain pollinated plants

Recently, fan Xuli, a researcher from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other researchers found that the rainwater pollination mechanism of epiphytic orchids, which have many flowers, is different from the self pollination mechanism known in orchids, and is the first rain vector plant in the true sense among flowering plants The discovery answers the question of whether the pollination form of "rain media" exists Relevant research results have been published online recently in the botanical chronicle According to fan Xuli, the successful transfer of pollen between Anther and stigma is the most important link in sexual reproduction for flowering plants In 1950, scientists observed the use of rainwater as a pollinator for several plants in the Faroe Islands Since then, "rain vector" as a pollination method has been recorded and widely mentioned, and is considered to be a reproductive guarantee mechanism due to the lack of pollination insects However, since then, the general view is that rain is very harmful to pollination of insect pollinated plants, and some scholars have questioned the authenticity of the form of "rain pollination" Since then, the research has denied the authenticity of rainwater pollination Is there any rain vector plant in nature? "At last, we found this interesting mechanism of rainwater pollination in the study of the common epiphytic orchids of the limestone mountain rain forest in Xishuangbanna Fan told ScienceDaily "We found that the flower features of multi flowered brittle orchid have evolved to adapt to the rain pollination, such as the flower sequence is upright, the flowers are arranged crosswise and open upward, the petals are thick and elastic, and the special pistil column structure These characteristics make it able to turn the pollens around 270 degrees under the impact of raindrops, cross the beak, directly fall into the stigma nest, and complete self pollination " Said fan Xuli At the same time, the investigation after rain found that the removal rate and sedimentation rate of pollen block were as high as 72% and 60% respectively; after the treatment of 95 inflorescences in 17 different places in the field, the average result rate of the plant was only 3.47 ± 0.78%, which was significantly lower than the natural result rate of 24.88 ± 1.37% of the control in the same period All these results indicated that the rain pollination played an important role in the seed setting of crispy orchid.