Water Aids Pollination

close up photograph of sea grass underwater

Biological Strategy

American eelgrass

AskNature Team

Image: Emily French/Erin Shields / Flickr / Some rights reserved

Pollinate

One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds that contain the genetic information to produce a new plant. Seeds can only be produced when pollen grains reach the hidden ovaries within a flower. Flowers have developed wildly diverse forms and activities, such as the production of sweet nectar to attract organisms such as bees and butterflies, that move from flower to flower, transferring pollen. Flowers will also adapt to make use of environmental influences such as wind and water as pollinators.

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Regulate Reproduction or Growth

Reproduction and growth are two physiological processes that occur in all living systems. There are situations when conditions are right for both, and other situations when continuing either harms the living system because both have a very high energy cost. Reproduction and growth are unique in that both can stop until conditions improve, although stopping either for an extended time can cause problems. An example of regulating reproduction is a process called delayed implantation or embryonic diapause found in some mammals, such as otters. An otter’s embryos sometimes temporarily cease developing and won’t develop further until the female senses that conditions are suitable.

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Distribute Solids

Solids include resources such as food, seeds, spores, and leaves, which living systems must sometimes move to accomplish various activities such as pollinating, feeding their young, or building shelters. To effectively distribute solids, living systems must use strategies appropriate to the sizes and types of solids and the media in which they exist (air, water, or another medium). This may entail strategies beyond simply holding and carrying solids. For example, some seeds are carried by the wind to new locations for germination. Others–like the burdock plant’s hooked seeds–cling to animal fur to be transported.

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Move in/on Liquids

Water is not only the most abundant liquid on earth, but it’s vital to life–so it’s no surprise that the majority of life has evolved to thrive on and under its surface. Moving efficiently in and on this dense and dynamic substance presents unique challenges and opportunities for living systems. As a result, they have evolved countless solutions to optimize drag, utilize surface tension, fine tune buoyancy, and take advantage of various types of currents and fluid dynamics. For example, sharks can slide through water by reducing drag due to their streamlined shape and specially shaped features on their skin.

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Flowering Plants

Clade Angiosperms (“receptacle seed”): Dandelions, oaks, grasses, cacti, apples

With 416 families containing some 300,000 known species, angiosperms are the most diverse group of plants, and they can be found around the globe in a wide variety of habitats. They are characterized by seeds that grow enclosed in ovaries, which are enclosed in flowers. The floral organs then develop into fruits of myriad kinds and dimensions, from simple seed casings on maples to elaborate fleshy growths like papayas. The oldest flower known from fossils, Montsechia vidalii, appeared during the Jurassic Period 130 million years ago. They are the primary food source for herbivorous animals, which in turn makes them the indirect food source for carnivores as well.

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A tethered structure of the eelgrass flower draws in free-sailing male flowers for pollination by forming a dimple on the water surface.

“Water celery has long narrow flat leaves that remain below the surface and absorb the oxygen and carbon dioxide they need from that dissolved in water around them. It also exploits water in its pollination techniques. Its flowers are either male or female. The female flower opens its three petals while it is still underwater and then rises up towards the surface on a rapidly lengthening stem. The male bud makes the journey even more swiftly. Before it even opens, and while it is still some distance below the surface, it breaks off its stem and floats upwards. Once on the surface it unfurls its petals and erects twin stamens. With the stamens serving as sails, this tiny vessel is then wafted across the surface of the water…The female flower is also blown by the wind but it is anchored by its stem. As the breeze tugs at it, so its stem pulls it lower in the water, creating a dimple in the surface. The male ship, moving freely, sails into the dimple, toboggans down its slope and collides so violently with the female flower that the pollen is knocked out of its anthers. The female flower, having achieved fertilisation, then closes. Its stem tightens into a corkscrew, pulling it back beneath the surface. And there, safely underwater, it develops its seeds.” (Attenborough 1995:292-293)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Book

The Private Life of Plants

BBC Books | 21/08/1995 | David Attenborough

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