Why Plants Have Rizz (Or At Least Some Do)
Are you looking for ways to charm that special someone? Maybe writing a love letter or following your friends’ advice failed, so you are looking for something new. Well, look no further! Just draw inspiration from the pollination of plants to increase your charisma.
Understanding how pollination works helps us see how plants attract specific animals to pollinate them. To reproduce, pollen from one plant needs to transfer to the flower of another. However, pollen usually requires a medium to move. Animals pollinate over 80% of flowering plants, while others, like oak trees, use the wind or other non-living pollinators. Since these plants have a specific type of animal they use as their pollinator, they essentially “rizz” up their animal pollinators by making it more convenient for them to pollinate the plants. So, how exactly do plants charm specific animals into pollinating them?
Carrion flower
Sure, the carrion plant may look and smell disgusting, but it’s not trying to attract humans. Unlike the average Discord moderator, the plant’s funky odor and disturbing look charm its target audience rather than repel it. Flies, which love rotten smells, are drawn to the African desert succulent flower’s odor which resembles that of a dead body. This potted plant is normally purple, brown, yellow, or red, which makes it more attractive for flies to lay their eggs. The star-shaped flower, with a diameter that exceeds 9 inches and is slightly less than that of an NBA basketball, makes itself more appealing to flies by using its outer hairs to replicate the appearance of decaying meat. Once attracted, the flies are directed to the center of the flower’s structure, where pollen can be smoothly collected.
Eastern red columbine
Instead of having a full odor makeover, some plants go through a full flower makeover to gain rizz.
The blooming period in spring and the flower shape of eastern red columbines allow for the perfect relationship with hummingbirds that often reappear after their winter migration. These columbines possess bell-shaped flowers with red sepals –ultimate green flags for hummingbirds– and have tube-like sections for birds with long beaks to pass through. Columbines take hummingbirds to a nectar dinner in exchange for their pollinating services. Despite this match made in heaven, other animals like bees use their long noses to compete for the columbines’ love and steal the hummingbirds’ dinner.
But what if plants would rather spend Valentine’s Day alone and self-pollinate instead of trying to get W-rizz and looking for an animal? Instead of relying on animal pollinators, most self-pollinating plants, such as grasses and maple trees, rely on the wind. Wind-pollinated plants produce a considerable amount of pollen, which the wind carries to other plants. These plants use their lengthy and feather-like stigma to seize the pollen in the airstream. Pollen from these plants is lighter and can be transported more easily. Content with themselves, wind plants need not beautify their flowers nor prepare a nectar dinner for the force of the wind.
Overall, plants need to find a vehicle to ship their precious pollen to other plants. Sometimes, this vehicle is an animal. Other times, the wind itself transports the pollen. Plants that use animals as pollinators go through a makeover, whether in scent or appearance, to intrigue their desired pollinators. Some plants spray cologne on themselves, and some flowers change their shape for the pollination experience to be more satisfying. Even if a plant cannot prepare a meal for an animal, they can still use the wind and be strong and independent. So, who knows? Maybe you should take inspiration from the rizzlers of your garden before asking someone out, or just have a self-care day like the wind-pollinated plants.
Sources:
https://greenhouse.biology.indiana.edu/features/stinky/Stapelia-gigantea.html
https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/26-4-the-role-of-seed-plants
https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants400/Profiles/st/Stapelia
https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/ornamentals/carrion-flower.html
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/eastern-red-columbine-aquilegia-canadensis
