The shapes of flowers are also dictated by bees. Common flowers, so to speak, are where the plant has not further evolved and are round rimmed flowers. Such flowers allow insects to approach at any angle and those results in a crowd. Such flowers are not choosy on the pollinator but complex flowers are insisting upon a particular approach to its nectar. The flower is bio symmetric, that is, the top half is exactly the same as the top half but upside down. This communicates two different actions. If the bee enters at a particular angle, it creates the opportunity for the plant to evolve particular adaptations for the furthering its own benefit. That is if a plant can hit and thereby deposit pollen on a particular parts of a visitor’s body, especially if they are of a particular shape and size, then there is a higher probability of the bee depositing the pollen in a mirrored area on the receiving plant. This explains the divergence of flowers internal parts. Take your favourite flower, an orchid. Well, apparently Calypso Orchids are evil and nasty because they open in the morning and let out a beautiful scent. They offer a broad landing area and have beckoning stripes and a shallow spur which advertises nectar. But the orchids offer no nectar, their flower design is trickery because all the orchid will do is put some pollen onto the bees backside and out of reach from the bee. The lady slipper orchid also tricks, indeed a third of orchid plants rely upon deception for pollination. Today we may note a lot of flowers and then note there is not much fruit, that’s no pollination. You need the bees for the fruit. Bee populations have of recent collapsed and though there are the theories why, insecticides, monoculture, fundamentally, there is a shortage of flowers.
