Werewolf plant waits for the light of the full moon

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Werewolf plant waits for the light of the full moon

by Andy Coghlan
It’s the only known plant species that relies on the lunar cycle for survival – and we found out by complete accident.

At night, Ephedra foeminea, a non-flowering relative of conifers and cycads, secretes small translucent globules of sugary liquid to attract nocturnal pollinating insects.

The globules are like tiny beads oozing out from cone-shaped female organs, where the seeds are produced. If a pollinator lands on a globule, any pollen it is carrying is absorbed via the liquid into the female cone, where it fertilises the seed.

It took a while for researchers to notice the plant was following the moon. While studying other Ephedra species, Catarina Rydin and Kristina Bolinder of Stockholm University in Sweden had found that pollinator-attracting globules appeared on these plants around the same time every year. But when they revisited Ephedra foeminea plants in Greece and Croatia in 2013 to observe their pollination, they were flummoxed to find no globules.

“After a useless week in Greece without any pollinators to observe, we were in a really bad mood, and decided to go for a dinner instead of visiting the field site again,” says Rydin. “Then, all of a sudden, there was a eureka moment, perhaps from seeing the moon on photos from a previous year, and contrasting it with the darkness we’d experienced so far at the field site.”….More Here

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Werewolf plant waits for the light of the full moon