The mysterious conqueror

 

Credit: Eric Hill 

Here´s a second and hopefully better attempt to review the French nature documentary "L´abominable mystère des fleurs". Apparently, Charles Darwin regarded the origins and evolution of the flowering plants or angiosperms an “abominable mystery” due to their seemingly rapid evolution and diversification. The documentary tries to shed at least some light on the problematique. One of the scientists featured is named Sarah Darwin and actually is a descendant of Charles Robert!

If I understand the documentary correctly, 90% of all plant species are flowering plants. They are believed to have evolved about 100 million years ago. At the very least, the oldest known fossil of an angiosperm is that old. If I understand it correctly, this fossil is already quite “advanced”. However, genetic studies of Amborella – a peculiar species endemic to New Caledonia and believed to be the last surviving member of a “basal” angiosperm lineage – suggest an origin already 140 – 250 million years ago. This gives ample time for flowering plants to evolve and diversify before they were preserved in the fossil record. Later, 214 million YBP was chosen as the definitive date. Hypothetically, the first flower was believed to have looked like a water lily! Somehow, I´m not surprised – I always got some kind of “dinosaur” vibes from those (but maybe that´s because of some old horror flick).

The most fascinating plant shown in the documentary is easily the Welwitschia, which is a gymnosperm rather than an angiosperm. Only found in Namibia and Angola, some specimens can become 2,000 years old (!). It´s also an extremely ancient lineage. Apparently, the Welwitschia has a kind of “failed flowers”, which has led scientists to wonder if it could be a (failed?) transitional form between Gymnospermae and flowering plants. Genetic studies suggest that there are similarities between how the Welwitschia forms its pseudo-flowers and how real flowers are formed. This could be a missing link establishing that the angiosperms are indeed descended from gymnosperms in truly primordial times.

Other topics covered in the docu are equally interesting. Thus, most flowers aren´t blue, which is also something of a conundrum, since insects apparently “like” blue colors! They are easily drawn to them. It seems most flowering plants have difficulty for various reasons related to chemistry and soil quality to produce blue pigments. However, there are ways around this. For instance, some non-blue flowers can produce the blue color by simply reflecting the light that way. More surprising is the hypothesis that flowering plants can pick up sounds! The buzzing of an insect can somehow be detected by the petals of a flower. The producers of the documentary have humorously placed two musicians in the middle of a poppy field, where they play Rimsky-Korsakov´s “The Flight of the Bumblebee”!

And yes, the documentary is available in an English-language version, with the ridiculous title “Flower Power: The Mysterious Conqueror”.

But Darwin was right

 

Credit: Thomas Schoch 

"L´abominable mystère des fleurs" (The Abominable Mystery of Flowers) is a French nature documentary. The title is apparently a reference to a statement by Charles Darwin, who considered the fast evolution of flowering plants to be a serious problem for his theory. It´s therefore somewhat piquant that one of the scientists featured is named Sarah Darwin. And yes, she really is a descendant of Charles Robert!

The docu takes us to a literally blooming desert in Namibia, an 800-year young (and very bizarre) Welwitschia plant (also in Namibia), the French Alps and assorted laboratories. On the main island of New Caledonia, the scientists pluck an Amborella, the only species left of the oldest flowering plant lineage in Earth history (or something to that effect).

The evolution of flowering plants was clearly stimulated by insect pollinators, and geographical isolation can speed up speciation. 

But somehow, we knew that already. More intriguing is the research done on the Welwitschia plant, which is a gymnosperm. Presumably, the flowering plants (angiosperms) must have evolved from gymnosperms. And indeed, the Welwitschia turns out to have a kind of pseudo-flowers which are genetically similar to the real thing! Is this an actual "transitional form" still around today?

It seems Charles Darwin was right, after all. Next week: Einstein right, too?