July 4,
Myles Standish State Forest, Carver
The mechanism of pollination is extremely intricate. The insect, while trying to fix its legs, slips into the spaces between the appendages and further into the narrow slots between the anthers, right inside, toward the so-called corpuscles--structures that work like traps. The trapped leg is fixed between the two corpuscles, and flat paired bodies of pollen--pollinia hang on the claws of the insect. When it moves to another flower, it again slips into the slots between the anthers and tucks the pollinia right into the hidden pollen-receptive cameras.
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