The pull of the moon may be too much for one plant to resist , consort toa late composition publishedinBiology letter of the alphabet . The study suggests that theEphedra foemineashrub has loup-garou - like tendencies , preferring to sprout ruddy and yellow cones and loose its pollen under the light of the full synodic month .
E. foemineais theonly knownplant species in existence that syncs its reproduction to the light of the full moon , in peculiar during the calendar month of July . Theclimbing shrubis most often find on cliffs , ravine and unornamented rock in region across the southeastern Mediterranean and further in the south to Yemen . Thegymnospermreproduces via moonlight pollenation in an effort to lure nocturnal louse to its retinal cone . The scraggly bush does this by secreting sugary drops laden with pollen for insect to find , glint like hoarded wealth under the bright gleam of the moon .
“ This may be adaptive in two ways , " compose Catarina Rydin and Kristina Bolinder of Stockholm University in Sweden . " Many nocturnal insects navigate using the lunar month . Further , the outstanding reflection of the full - moonlight in the pollination drop cloth is the only plain means of nocturnal attraction of dirt ball in these works . ”
The researchers discovered this while on a mission in Greece to uncover its elusive generative secrets . They chance that a relative of the plant , E. distachya , was flatus - pollinate , but could n’t say the same forE. foeminea . So they pulled an all - nighter to see if the works await until the cover of night to spread its pollen . To their astonishment , it did .
“ The many pollination drops scintillation like rhomb in the full - Moon , ” the authors write . “ A spectacular sight also for the human eye . "
Image Credit : Catarina Rydin , Kristina Bolinder / Biology Letters . Left : Ephedra foeminea . Male cone cell with pollenation free fall produced by sterile ovules at the distal center of the conoid . Right : Ephedra foeminea . Female cones with pollination drops .
This moonlight transformation makesE. foemineaa rarity among its clade . “ The lunar correlativity has probably been lost in most metal money ofEphedrasubsequent an evolutionary fault to scent pollination in the clade , " say the authors . " When the services of insect are no longer needed for successful pollenation , the adaptative note value of correlate pollination with the full moon is lost , and conceivably also the trait . ”
While unique for plants , lunar Hz reproduction and action has been found in a number of vertebrate and invertebrates . For case , certaintropical reef coralssync their reproduction with the phases of the moon .
precisely how the plant specify when the full lunation is out remains unclear . It is possible that the moonshine ’s gravitational pull is at play , or that the plant life has a high sensitivity to the amount of moonlight . The development of such a generative chemical mechanism is likely a import of plant – animal interaction .
Either way , this unusual form of flora pollenation has the research worker slightly pertain . According toThe Smithsonian , theE. foeminieagrow much further from townsfolk than most of its hint - pollinated congener . The researchers are curious to hump whether the reason has something to do with promiscuous pollution break up its habituation on the lunar hertz . Only future study will tell .
