Diascia whiteheadii pollination

There is some pollen smeared on a petal lobe here. Specialised pollination arrangements are a big story for Diascia whiteheadii in particular and for the Diascia genus in general. Rediviva bees involved in their pollination is the animal world’s contribution to this tale involving floral oil, not nectar.

Some Rediviva bee species are physically adapted to access oil, secreted by certain flowering species and stored in corolla hiding places, including Diascia floral spurs. Co-evolution between several Diascia flowers and Rediviva bee pairings that share geographical distributions show remarkable, functional matches for feeding and pollination between plant and insect.

Rediviva longimanus, a South African bee with disproportionately long front legs and hairy front feet, uses its front legs to collect oil from the correspondingly long spurs of D. whiteheadii.

Life finds ways through natural selection of meeting procreation challenges through partnerships between totally unlike species from the plant and animal worlds. Mutually beneficial dependencies are established by survival (until reproduction) of those specimens that fit the functional partnership.

The timing of early death for those unsuitably endowed genetically is thus a key feature in the continual becoming of nature and its beauty. This makes systematic early death an underrated feature in the preservation of life on earth (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; iNaturalist; Die großen wissenschaftlichen Leistungen von Stefan Vogel (1925–2015) Teil 5b. Öl statt Nektar – die Ölblumen (dikotyle Vertreter). Weber, Gerlach und Dötterl in https://ojs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de; www.timeslive.co.za).