Darwin’s Orchids

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Definitely a book not only for the exacting orchid enthusiast, but for evolutionary biologists and Darwinists; this volume continues the research initiated by Charles Darwin in his seminal publication on orchids and the mechanisms of their fertilization On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects and the Good Effects of Intercrossing (1862). He described the various morphologically evolved lures developed by the flowers to attract the insects that increased pollination. While Darwin studied the orchids and the reciprocal evolutionary adaptations between the plants and the insects in the English countryside, this volume garners updated scientific studies from researchers in the Eurasian countryside, the southern hemisphere and the tropics. The contrivances posed by orchids for their pollination by insects is the first theme addressed, while the second area of investigation focuses on why the orchids exhibit so many perfect adaptations to enhance their pollination. Modern technology and numerous investigators are continually expanding this field of botanical ecological evolution. While not a book for the lay reader, this scientific tome into the sex life of orchids will capture the interest of the botanic ecologists and co-evolutionists.


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Author
Star Count 3.5/5
Format Hard
Page Count 384 pages
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Publish Date 2014-Nov-05
ISBN 9780226044910
Bookshop.org Buy this Book
Issue January 2015
Category Science & Nature
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