Bee-zarre ideas
We learned at school of plants producing flowers and nectar to attract insects to facilitate pollination and of seed dispersal methods designed (?) to maximise germination chances.
However, your report (19 May) of Cambridge University research claiming that garden flowers have “evolved” Velcro-like conical cells to give bees a foothold on petals in a breeze seems to me a quite bizarre interpretation of events.
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Hide AdAre we to believe that flowers sensed the bees’ difficulty, knew how to correct it and were themselves able to do so?
That suggests an intelligence beyond human standards.
How did they know the bees would be able to get free? Presumably the plants also sensed failure of pollination in windy conditions; otherwise they needn’t do anything.
I find the whole idea fanciful and I question whether bees have any such difficulty.
Robert Dow
Ormiston Road
Tranent, East Lothian