As can be seen in the photo, all other orchid flowers have four petals and a purple heart, this flower has only two petals and no heart. Does this happen more often? How come?
Answer
Dear Esther,
Nature is so wonderful, yet we often tend to take everything we see happening around us for granted; how birds come out of the egg, how a seed germinates, how a plant grows and also how a bud opens. Yet complicated processes of cell division and gene expression always precede it. And sometimes things can go wrong. That’s what happened here too. With the cell divisions very early in the flower bud in the making, something went wrong, so that only petals were formed and no heart with stamens and pistil. That does indeed happen from time to time and looks unusual, but that too is part of the wonderful nature.
Answered by
Koen Es
Botany
New Avenue 38 1860 Meise
http://www.plantentuinmeise.be
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