Disa ferruginea curving and straight spurs

A Disa ferruginea flower spike is usually many-flowered, elongating towards cylindrical once the upper flowers open. The conspicuous spurs on the dorsal sepals pointing back towards the stem are not uniformly aligned in their orientation, resupination not ending in exact positioning.

Most of the flowers are more or less tilted down, suggesting coyness towards prospective pollinators. This is ironic in the absence of any nectar rewards in these disas, visitor disappointment at empty spurs a surprise for later, when the pollen is already upon them.

The flowers market without product, a practice frowned upon in the people world. The customers are unable to differentiate the dry Disa blooms from the similar flowering Tritoniopsis triticea, renowned for their liquid refreshment. Dumbness is known to add fruitless labour.

So, this Disa gets pollinated as a spin-off from having decent neighbours, the scam perpetuates seed-setting for one more species and pragmatism beats ethics one more time in nature (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Manning, 2007).