Paphiopedilum Deconstructed.
Trapped.
The staminode, a repurposed sterile anther is a big feature inside the slipper orchid lip. Shaped like a giant flyswat, it collects incoming female hoverflies on its smooth surface before dropping them into the cup shaped lip where they buzz around before working out how to escape.
A Climbing Wall for Insects.
Trapped in the bottom of the lip with limited space an insect has little chance of flying out. The walls are vertical and smooth with hairs lining the rim like a fence.
“I’m totally stuffed” the insect buzzed angrily. Luckily, compound eyes with surround vision notice a narrow line of vertical pointing hairs on the rear wall. A climbing wall with rope hairs perfectly placed to assist the insect’s escape from an otherwise deadly trap. “That will do me just fine” the insect buzzed as it skipped up the rear wall effortlessly.
Ducking beneath the staminode at the top, it crawls beneath the stigma depositing pollen in the process. Giant compound eyes spot exits behind each of the anthers. Barging clumsily past an anther the insect inadvertently picks up a fresh pollen load for its next adventure in a slipper orchid funland for insects.
I can see clearly now the petals have gone.
The gentle curve of ovaries visible in the top left hand corner.
A forward facing flyswat, the staminode, is ready to drop inbound female hoverflies into the cup. They love a good feed of aphids. It is likely they are tricked by the yellow mound on the staminode, mistaking it for an aphid nest.
The “tower”, a column extending from the ovaries is a feature of orchids. The orchid reproductive organs are fused on this structure. The stigma is visible beneath the staminode.
Towards the rear is one of a pair of anthers.
The lower lobed surface of the stigma is the active part.
View with the cup removed.
Female hoverflies are attracted by the prospect of an aphid nest as a ready food supply for their offspring. Hairs on the back wall of the cup guide the insect to twin exits behind the staminode. It is forced to crawl beneath the boot shaped stigma. Squeezed between the lower surface of the stigma and the lip wall, any pollen carried by an insect is scraped off.
Three lobes, clearly visible, on the underside of the stigma.
.
The pollen container is attached. to a stubby filament with a rather shoogly peg.
In Paphiopedilum Parishii the anthers liquify and slide the short distance to the stigma before flowing over it and self fertilising. Orchids are in a class of their own literally, when it comes to pollination strategies and survival of the species.