ORCHIDS AND HUMMINGBIRDS: SEX IN THE FAST LANE Part 1 of Orchids and Their Pollinators

PART BULLY, ALL SWAGGER, hummingbirds aretiny bundles of ego and attitude with no humili-ty or fear. The smallest warm-blooded avian crea-tures, they hover like a helicopter, consume energy like a jet plane, and glitter in the sunlight like a precious jewel. It is fitting that this most magnificent evolution-ary miracle should be a pollinator for the equally mag-nificent evolutionary miracle that is the orchid. ing flowers locked together in a mutually beneficial dance. Hummingbirds (Trochilidae) are the predominant avian orchid pollinator. Birds are late-comers to the pollination game and only pollinate three percent of orchids. Nonetheless, with an estimated 35,000 orchid species, there are probably hundreds and hundreds of orchids that rely on hummingbirds for pollination. Most orchids that are hummingbird- pollinated are from high- elevation ecosystems in the tropical New World where insects are rare or unable to operate because of the cold. They are particularly common in the Andean regions where hummingbirds reach their greatest diversity. Hummingbirds are found only in the Americas with at least 330 species from Alaska to the tip of South America. The greatest numbers are found in the tropics with fewer than 20 species normally found in the United States and Canada. Hummingbirds seem particularly attracted to many species of the genera Elleanthus, Cochliod a, and Comparettia. Some species of Masd evallia, Epidendrum, Encyclia, Cattleya, Sobralia, and Laelia have also adapted to hummingbirds. In addition, the highly-specialized little birds are attracted to certain species of Ad a, Scaphyglo ttis (syn. Hexisea), Sce lo chilus, Cattleya (syn. Sophronitis), and Stenorrhynchos as well as an assortment of other gen-era