Mystery pollinator

[Orchidsoutdoors]

Well I was out inspecting my orchids this morning and discovered something very odd: the Slc hybrid here http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ii-shonan.html has a pod developing. This shouldn't be possible as there are no pollinators for this family in my country and none of them should be autogamous or cleistogamous.

Could this be a 'phantom pregnancy'? Or, if any of the Aussies here could say, are there are possible pollinators in Australia that could do this?

[lepetitmartien]

Maybe you have bees of the right size…

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I'm in a way echoing what "lepetitmartien" had said, but I'll elaborate just a tiny bit.

A pollinator would have to be:

1. Attracted to the flower. It doesn't matter whether it is by vision, smell, or other means.

2. The correct shape.

3. The correct size.

4. Be able to pollinate the orchid the way it was designed to be pollinated.

The pollinator doesn't have to be the exact same species from the pollinator's/orchid's originating country/region.

For example, I know that Bletilla striata is not autogamous, but somehow some of the flowers get pollinated. Bletilla striata is native to parts of China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan; and the insects that would normally pollinate Bletilla striata there are probably not present here, but again, they get pollinated. That means there is a substitute pollinator here in the US that can do the job.

I've even had Dendrobium kingianum pollinated here by our honeybees. The honeybees here visit the Den kingianum flowers often.

What you've witnessed is not out of the question. It does happen, maybe not all that much, but it does.

[Orchidsoutdoors]

It's interesting that they can find a match here when in their endemic areas they generally have a single species of pollinator despite there being numerous related bee/wasp etc species. And I suppose it's more likely to happen in self-fertile species, as an instance of an insect fumbling around and managing the orchid pollination process is far more likely than one managing to carry a pollinia from one flower to another.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The orchids I mentioned in my examples are self fertile, so it is likely that you might be correct, idk.

It would be interesting to know whether some of the fly pollinated Bulbophyllums would be a different matter. The green bottle, the blue bottle, and the black blow flies that pollinate certain Bulbophyllums are present not only in the orchids' native tropical Asian countries but they are in many parts of the world as well. It's important to note that some Bulbophyllums are not self fertile.

In some cases, certain orchids will not have substitute pollinators outside their native ranges. Their pollinators are so unusual, that they only appear in their native habitats. One perfect example is Phalaenopsis bellina and the fruit fly species that pollinates it. The genus of the fruit fly pollinator is without a doubt Bactrocera. I'm just not adept at telling similar looking species apart from each other, and there are 3 possible choices of species that could be the actual pollinator for Phal bellina, but I think I wouldn't be too far off by saying that it could possibly be the species Bactrocera dorsalis.

Bactrocera dorsalis is limited to certain countries, and there are not very many fruit flies that are similar in size and shape to this insect. It is twice as large as Drosophila hydei.

Phal bellina also produces a special chemical, called methyl eugenol, that attracts these flies to it. This chemical attracts a limited sort of insects.

This is why it would be very difficult, and highly unlikely to see Phal bellina being pollinated outside of its natural range, unless the insect Bactrocera dorsalis was accidentally introduced in a country and the fly was able to survive and proliferate.

Another example would be orchids in the genus Coryanthes, and the Euglossine bees. Euglossine bees are New World bees. They are specialized in that in addition to gathering food, the males gather special scent chemicals that the orchids in the genus Coryanthes produces. Euglossine bees are a little larger than the European honeybee. They also tend to not wander out of their native ranges often. These bees have really not been introduced to other parts of the world either. I don't know very many insects like this in other parts of the world. This is what would make Coryanthes difficult to be pollinated by a substitute pollinator as well.

[orchidsarefun]

and then again it could be that you bumped the flower inadvertently while watering, dislodging the pollinia ...........and the plant was fooled into thinking it had been pollinated. I had this happen to a cym ensifolium I have. The pod developed to the stage where the pollen cells grow to fertilise the "egg" - when this didn't happen, the pod shrivelled. I found pollinia from a catasetum that "shoots" its pollinia, when triggered by a pollinator, on the floor 2 feet from the plant. My plants are all indoors ! Strange things happen.
and then again it could be that you had a visit from the toothpick fairy. She is only active outdoors and is never seen but much spoken about !
You will soon know - either the pod will grow on or it will shrivel.

[euplusia]

Some Cattleyas are self-pollinating, for example those with Guarianthe aurantiaca in their ancestry. Actually Guarianthe Guatemalensis produces a pod in my collection.

On the other hand I often see bumblebees in my greenhouse. They come in because it is warm there, and stay for the night. They especially prefer to crawl into the flowers of large flowered Cattleyas, where they sit protected by the lip to their sides, and sheltered by the column over their back. In this 'bed' they sleep. The next morning I find them exhausted and with pollinia on their back. Actually they made Cattleya intermedia flowers to fade too early.
I think some sort of insect is the most likely reason for the pod of your Cattleya.