Great botanical observations always have underlying meaning. There are two kinds of symmetry in flowers, radial or actinomorphic which can be divided three or more times, like a tire, and bilaterial or zygomorphic, which only have one center of symmetry, like a monkey from the front (instead of the cross section of his tail). Carnivorous plants flowers often have flowers that are attempting to appear to have both traits, understandably to confuse an insect to fly up rather nthan down where it would be eaten. They have evolved to appear to be radially symmetric to convince the insect to go up, and bilaterially symmetric to attract a mate that will remember to go to a similar species. Bilaterial symmetry is a demonstration of brain chemistry and has to do with memory making. Bilaterial symmetry is believed to be a modern, evolved, derived, advanced, or newer character in plants, and yet the most modern eudicot family, uses radial symmetry, or rather, is a composite of radial flowers and a smaller bilaterial symmetric ray flower. Why would the composite family evolve to have an ancient, primitive, ancestorial, or older character? Perhaps this kind of flower lends itself to better seed set, dispersal, and seed shattering in non woody plants in open areas. This kind of flower could be to save insect pollinators from predators who hunt in the open or sunlight, where radial symmetry is common. Radial symmetry might be less efficient at pollinations, given that it is not common among modern, evolved, derived, advanced, or newer plants. Perhaps predation among insects that pollinate carnivorus plants is common, forcing them to bloom in the sun spots to help their pollinators with disguising shadows.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 06:06:07 +0000
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