Moraea albicuspa flower

The flower of Moraea albicuspa has three large outer tepals, obovate in shape and spreading, with pointed tips. The inner tepals of the flower in picture contrast with the big outer ones. They are erect and tiny, almost needle-like in shape. This photo was taken in January in the Drakensberg.

Triangular yellow nectar guides, covered in scattered brown spots like leopardskin, can be seen at the base of each tepal. They serve to interest suitable pollinators, shaped and conditioned over countless generations for their task.

Nectar guides or floral guides on flowers are not always yellow; in fact they are not always visible to humans, as some are only visible in ultraviolet light. Some insects, such as bees, can see this colour called bee violet and are attracted by the promise of food to perform their interspecies duties that require no study.

At the other end of the spectrum of light, the components of white light in the rainbow, bees are unable to see red, the wavelengths for which their vision is adapted shorter than is the case for humans. Bees can see light in the wavelength range from about 300 nanometers to 650 nanometers, making up in ultraviolet what they lose in red.

The contract of give and take between two or more species is secured by enticement only, sustained by mutual benefit, no paperwork. The system remains intact as long as sufficient viable seeds are produced. The system changes when conditions, such as climate or habitat require the next modification in flower or insect (or both), to extend the art of the possible. This art is driven by a relentless imperative: to have children that can have children.

A range of random alternatives are continually produced genetically in all living species, even when everything works. The redundant alternatives, currently unworkable ones, fall by the wayside continually through sacrifice in many deaths, until needs of the species change, then survival shifts to the new functionality.  Suddenly a serendipitous new route is found through a genetic option or freak, more appropriate in the prevailing circumstances.

Survival (equalling success) is ensured by the course changes of the species effected via patterns in early mortality statistics of individual plants. All die, some before reproduction, others after. The latter ones influence the characteristics of the offspring, the non-reproducing ones missing out on leaving a legace.

This may also bring about bimodal distributions of two (or more) successful types evolving, the splitting of multiple survival groupings into forms, subspecies or new species, diversifying the winning ways of the plant over challenges as time and generations pass.

Evolutionary events may appear to display miraculous synchronicity: such incredible cleverness can only come about through masterminding infinite detail! The sheer volume of random options created in nature is, however, a continuous stream providing for endless contingencies. Only a minute proportion of these options come to fruition, suggesting astonishing coincidence.

The volume of natures enormous numbers of discarded alternatives, the early deaths, is invisible to the beholder of the living plants. This masking of the masses of deaths among unfit plants feeds the sense of wonder at the miracle of life. This miracle is still and forever continuing. Natural selection meaning survival until the setting of viable seed by only plants having suitable attributes for meeting all the important environmental challenges is a refined selection criterion. It defines the species in terms of the timing of death of all its members.

Understanding how it all works has been and is still studied, the knowledge growing incrementally, driven by the environment and untold ecological details. The complex outcomes of countless life processes among interacting species keep changing as climate and other known and unknown impacting factors change.

People will probably never be agreed on what human impact on nature is or how it should be managed. We do know that were dominant in causing some changes, less sure in others and likely to suffer with everything else if some of the current trends are not halted or curbed (Wikipedia; www.pacificbulbsociety.org).