NEW orchid species discovered in Western Australia

Orchids are truly amazing - they are highly evolved plants!

For example, to encourage pollination, the flowers of many orchids have evolved to resemble female insects to encourage the male insect to pollinate the flower. The referenced article is short but it is exciting first of all to know that a new orchid species has been discovered and second, that an orchid flower can evolve to resemble an insect thus encouraging pollination. Not only does the flower resemble the female insect, it emits a scent, much like a pheramone, to dupe the male insect in believing it is copulating with an actual female insect. Amazing! Here is the link to the article. Enjoy!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22012555-1702,00.html

Sincerely,
Steve Peralta