People love the smell of flowers. Roses, tulips, and...body odor?
That last one comes from an orchid plant. There are orchids that smell like rotting meat or fish to attract pollinators, and this orchid is doing the same thing by smelling like a human.
It's known as the small northern bog orchid, and it lures in tiger mosquitoes by giving off an odor that has chemicals found in human body odor. The orchid is trying to trick mosquitoes to land on it by making them think they're about to land on a person. Instead of human blood, the mosquito gets pollen that it can move to another orchid.
So how did scientists know it was the body odor chemicals that mosquitoes were responding to?
Well, after collecting the orchids' scent in airtight plastic bags and analyzing what chemicals were in it, scientists collected a sample of mosquitoes buzzing around the site. Then they delivered pulses of the different chemicals they found in the orchid scent. The body odor chemical set off electrical activity in the mosquitoes' antennae, implying that it's what attracts them.
To be clear, saying body odor just means a human-like smell, not necessarily a bad one. Humans can barely smell it, anyway.
Read more
- Focus on Flowers - Orchids indoors
- Calypso orchid: Pollination by deception
- How plants make sure their pollen gets delivered to the right place
Source
Y: Hey, Don, do you smell something?
D: Like what?
Y: It smells a little like body odor in here.
D: Oh, that. It must be my orchid plant.
Y: Your...orchid? Since when do orchids smell like people? Actually, I take that back. I have heard about orchids that smell like rotting meat and orchids that smell like fish to attract pollinators.
D: That's what this orchid is doing. This is a small northern bog orchid, and it lures in tiger mosquitoes by giving off an odor that has chemicals found in human body odor.
Y: So the orchid is trying to trick mosquitoes to land on it by making them think they're about to land on a person.
D: And, instead of human blood, the mosquito gets pollen that it can move to another orchid.
Y: So how did scientists know it was the body odor chemicals that mosquitoes were responding to?
D: Well, after collecting the orchids' scent in airtight plastic bags and analyzing what chemicals were in it, scientists collected a sample of mosquitoes buzzing around the site. Then they delivered pulses of the different chemicals they found in the orchid scent. The body odor chemical set off electrical activity in the mosquitoes' antennae, implying that it's what attracts them.
Y: When you say body odor, you just mean a human-like smell, right? Not necessarily a bad one?
D: Yup. And humans can barely smell it, anyway.
Y: So what you're telling me is that the odor I smell right now isn't coming from your orchid.
D: Well... I did just get back from a jog...