The Green Planet

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Narrator

And this hammer orchid, with strange flower, is doing exactly that. (birds chirping) (gentle music) It needs to attract a pollinator, but has no nectar and doesn't even look like a flower. Unlike these neighboring huge grass trees (bees buzzing) (gentle music) These produce thousands of tiny white flowers, all drooping with nectar. (gentle music) (bees buzzing) But the orchid has a different strategy. It synchronizes its emergence with the brief mating season of the beds wasp. (birds chirping) The flightless female wasp produces pheromones to attract males. (gentle music) (birds chirping) This male detects a scent that seems to be hers, (gentle music) yet flies right on by. (dramatic music) The orchid not only has the same shape and color as a female wasp but it sits at the same height as she does. It even mimics her smell. (dramatic suspenseful music) And the beguiled male attempts to mate with it. He hammers against the orchids pollen sacs, (dramatic suspenseful music) and the wasp leaves, doubtless a little shaken, only to be duped once again. (dramatic suspenseful music) The pollen on his back now sticks to this different orchid and the deception has worked. (gentle music) The orchids imitation is even more intoxicating, it seems, than the real thing. (dramatic music) Eventually the male wasps tire of the orchid's enticements. Now the wasps, both male and female, find the flowers of the grass trees to feed. (dramatic music) And there, at long last, they mate.