|
Consideration
of how fig trees are pollinated may leave the observer with a conundrum.
Pollinators of plants can often be predicted, based on flower
characteristics of colour, fragrance and shape. For example, white,
fragrant flowers with a long corolla tube are usually pollinated by Hawk
moths, which are nocturnal and have a long tongue. Fig trees are unique in
that the flowers are completely concealed within the fig, an enclosed
inflorescence, with the hundreds of tiny florets lining the inside of a
central cavity. Attempting to guess who pollinates figs and how the act is
carried out would no doubt lead to the conclusion that the pollinator, as
for many plant species, must be highly specialized. Careful, close and
patient observation of figs that are receptive for pollination would
enlighten the observer to a fascinating world, for fig trees are
completely dependant on tiny wasps, a couple of millimeters long, for
their propagation and survival. These fig wasps are the sole pollinators
of fig trees and in turn, fig wasps can breed nowhere else but inside
figs, a relationship that is a classic example of an obligate mutualism
(neither party can survive without the other) that has evolved over the
last 60 or so million years.
|
