If you are a hawk moth you pollinate an eastern prairie fringed orchid on a soft, warm night in early July by hovering in front of it and inserting your long proboscis past the sexual organs of the flower and deep into the long spur that hangs from the rear of the blossom. A pool of nectar as much as a centimeter deep awaits you there, and as you suck up the sugary syrup, the pollinium, the little packet of pollen in the flower, attaches itself to the side of your proboscis. When you probe another flower the pollinium will attach itself to the stigma of that bloom, allowing the pollen to grow into the ovary and fertilize the ovules there.
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Somehow the way the moths do it sounds like more fun. Of course we humans are capable of having fun once removed. Even the most arduous task can become a source of joy and satisfaction if we can honestly tell ourselves that the work is doing some good. This year a group of about 20 Chicago-area volunteer human pollinators got a chance to tell themselves exactly that.
They were working on one phase of a recovery plan for the eastern prairie fringed orchid, Platanthera leucophaea, a plant that has fallen on such hard times that it is listed as endangered in Illinois and threatened nationwide. It didn’t use to be a rarity. It grows across a fairly broad segment of the moisture gradient, showing up occasionally right in the middle of the gradient in mesic prairies. It is most common in wet-mesic and wet prairies, but it can also be found in the even wetter sedge meadows and fens.
But wouldn’t it be nice if we could establish more populations? What if we could saturate northern Illinois with eastern prairie fringed orchids? We live in an area where the art of ecological restoration is entering a golden age. Thanks to the efforts of our restorationists, we have more potential sites for this plant than we did ten years ago, and each year adds to the list. Why not spread the orchids so widely that we can take them off the lists for good?
The tied-in citizens who pollinated the orchids in July are now out collecting the mature seed capsules. According to Marlin Bowles, leaving the matter entirely to the hawk moths would result in pollination of about half of the 12 or so flowers on each plant. Hand pollination approaches 100 percent. The reproductive strategy of orchids involves producing very large numbers of very small seeds. Each flower produces a capsule that contains as many as 5,000 seeds.
The outcome of this project will only begin to be revealed five years from now, when this year’s scattered seeds begin to produce flowers. Until then our two-legged hawk moths will be out in July with their toothpicks.
