Orchid bees, which help pollinate species from at least 30 plant families and play a big role in Brazil’s agriculture, have long been under threat from land-use change. Data from 1996-1997 from the ...

Orchids don’t always reward their pollinators — sometimes they mislead them. From flowers that mimic insect mates to blooms that smell like rotting fish, orchids have evolved remarkable strategies to ...

Recent research, published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, used the database to reveal that orchids show remarkable diversity of highly specialized pollination strategies that differ ...

Scientists have discovered why orchids are one of the most successful groups of flowering plants - it is all down to their relationships with the bees that pollinate them and the fungi that nourish ...

Blue-green orchid bees zip through increasingly scarce patches of tropical forest to pollinate rare flowers. For the first time, researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute track unique ...

In the tropical forest of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, metallic blue, green, gold and red bees follow the fragrances of flowering orchids. Male euglossines, or orchid bees, are wild New World bees ...

It is well known that animal-pollinated plants usually offer nectar or pollen to reward vectors for pollen transfer. While nectar is a kind of sugar water, pollen is protein-rich, must-need nutrient ...

Some people -- and animals -- will go to any lengths to attract members of the opposite sex, including the use of aliases and lies. As many as 10,000 species of dainty orchids in the floral world also ...

Orchid bees are key pollinators in Central America and parts of Florida. Males collect flower scents to attract mates, and the danger comes from females, who can sting more than once without getting ...

A common wasp on a foraging mission catches an enticing scent on the breeze. It’s a set of chemicals given off by plants that are besieged by hungry insects and it means that there is food nearby for ...