A Brief History of Flowers

4) Changes in symmetry - The radial symmetry of primitive flowers has given way to bilateral symmetry.

Just as all evolution is the consequence of chance and selection and reaction to the weirdest stuff, wind-driven pollination gave way to, probably, beetles feeding on plants that secreted droplets of sticky sap that contained pollen grains. As the beetles developed a taste for the sappy plants, they inadvertently carried pollen from one plant to another. In some cases, this form of pollination was more efficient than wind-driven pollination, and voila, evolution is at the wheel and fence posts are a blur.

Flower evolution got a boost about 65 million years ago when the first butterflies, moths, bees and wasps appeared. As many of these long-tongued insects depend entirely upon flowers as their sole food source, flowers and insects alike had a profound effect on the other’s evolution. The relationship is advantageous to both: pollen is less likely to be wasted by insects that don’t have wanderlust for another nectar source, and these same insects have a private stash as their food source is inaccessible to competing insects. These flowers have evolved colors and odors that allow sensory recognition by pollinators and some, such as orchids and snapdragons, have evolved landing platforms and deep nectaries - nectar-secreting organs - which allow only specific insects to belly up to the bar.

In a nutshell - the husk of an angiosperm - that’s a bit of where our wildflowers came from, and how they got to be what they are: their evolution. Actually, that was a little more interesting than I expected, and it did take a bit of the edge off this meteor shower hangover...

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