Mormodes sinuata, The Goblin

Mormodes sinuata. The yellow column is twisted to the side, exposing the anther.

Mormodes sinuata ABG # 07-2342 flowering at the Fuqua Orchid Center

'Like a goblin'--is the fanciful etymology of Mormodes Lindley (from the Greek mormo, meaning 'goblin'; and odes, meaning 'like a') describing this orchid's strange male flower with its twisted column. I can imagine how the features of a goblin's face might twist as it breaks into a grin.

Why would an orchid flower have a twisted column? Because it's part of a unique pollination mechanism. The twisted column places the pollinarium (the pollinia, stipe and sticky viscidium) in the correct position on the pollinator's thorax.

Charles Darwin was the first person to investigate how Mormodes flowers are pollinated when he studied Mormodes ignea (published in The Various Contrivances by Which British Orchids and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized, 1862).

The flower's fragrance attracts a male Euglossine bee (genus Euglossa). As the bee lands on the lip, it strikes the apex of the column, opening the anther cap. The pollinarium, with its sticky disc, swings forward onto the back of the bee. After 30 minutes the pollinia packet dries and uncoils into the correct position for placement onto the female flower.

Reading Contrivances again I have to admire Darwin's patient and painstaking attention to minute detail as he analyzes this whole procedure. "At the close of the twelfth trial I was in despair...," he laments. But he persists. With only twelve flowers at his disposal, Darwin figures out the mechanism using needles of different diameter in place of a pollinator.

Several more species of Mormodes have flowered this week. More pics will follow!

Charles Darwin on Twitter

In case our fanciful encounter with Darwin in the FOC this week wasn't enough, you can now follow his every move on the Beagle expedition via Twitter. Posting one line excerpts from the young Darwin's diary during his HMS Beagle journey, @cdarwin has logged about 2400 tweets and has nearly 8,000 followers.

A given day's tweet is posted on the corresponding day Darwin made his diary entry 176 years ago. Tweets that mention a location are geotagged so that you can see where he was at that moment.

@cdarwin is a software developer and avid Darwin enthusiast who clearly enjoys introducing a new audience "to the humour, insight and imagination of the young Darwin as he begins to think about the marvelous, curious, and unexplained world he is circumnavigating."

Darwin Arrives at ABG

and he's wearing an orchid!

What would it be like to see the natural world through the eyes of a genius? To discover and think and wonder like Darwin?

Stanhopea costaricensis

Plants were an enduring focus of Charles Darwin's scientific life. His study of orchids was a cornerstone of his ideas about evolution. His ideas had their basis in his observations of living orchids, not just drawings or dried specimens. And he was fortunate to have access to an extraordinary variety of native and tropical orchids.

Imagine how excited Darwin must have been to see a Stanhopea flowering for the first time. What an explosion of creative thinking it must have ignited.

More than a hundred different species of orchids flower in the Fuqua Orchid Center on any given day. I can't help but imagine what fun it would be to tour around with Darwin. What would Darwin have thought of the myriad diversity of Dendrobiums, the slipper orchids, the exquisite simplicity of the Masdevallias, the horrific Bulbophyllums?

Come see and discover the orchids for yourself! Our Darwin exhibit runs through January.


Our thanks to Dr. Jenny Cruse-Sanders, Tracy McClendon, Chris Kozarich and Hilary Hart who created this exhibit.