Lady Slippers: Blooms in Balance
Biologists from William & Mary College in Virginia are looking for Lady Slippers. They’ve found some rare Cypripediums growing wild near campus, and these Lady Slippers are very finicky about where they live. They need precise growing conditions, both for themselves and for a mutualistic fungus which lives in their roots. In addition, natural selection has designed their extraordinary blooms as an intricate maze for their pollinators. “These are the most unlikely plants to live in so many ways,” biology Professor Martha Case says. “One of the reasons I got into botany was that they made such an impression on me.” With their research, the biologists hope to unravel the pollination process and follow the effects of climate change.
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May 9th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Thanks-a-mundo for the blog post.Really looking forward to read more. Keep writing.
May 11th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Cool! That was fun to read/watch. My alma mater has good fungi!?
May 16th, 2012 at 9:02 am
I really wish there were more videos like this on the web. It shows how lady slippers are growing in the wild and it is very helpful to learn how to grow them. Very nice!