Pollinators On Duty

As we have already mentioned, some plant species reproduce by having their pollen carried by animals such as insects, birds, bees, and butterflies.
The relationship between plants, which allow animals to disperse their pollen, and the animals which perform this duty amazes observers. Because in order to set up and perpetuate this system of mutual give and take, these living creatures attract and influence each other in quite expert ways. Generally speaking, it was at first thought that in their relationship with animals, plants played a very small role. Whereas researchers have put forward results completely at odds with this opinion. Plants, playing a very active role, directly influence animals' behaviour patterns.They have perfected strategies by which they direct the animals which will carry their pollen.
For example, plants' colour signals indicate to birds and other animals which fruits are ripe and ready for dispersal. The amount of nectar present, linked to the colour of flowers, increases the chances of fertilisation by encouraging the pollinator to stay on the plant longer. And specific floral odors attract the right pollinators at exactly the right time.5

The insects of different species in the pictures function as pollinators. God has created insects in complete harmony with plants. For example, the bee on the left has a basket made of special hairs on its leg, created to carry pollen.

Plants also sometimes use methods of deception to initiate the pollen-carrying process. The animal which is to carry out the particle spreading, generally falls into a trap laid by the plant, and in this way the plant achieves it aim.

Methods used by Plants: Colour, Shape, and Scent

As well as informing pollinators the presence of flowers, colour also helps to advertise their nectar reward status. When a pollinator approaches, the flower gives off stimulatory signals, such as scent, to show the insect the way to the nectar site. The colour patterning of flowers directs the pollinator to the centre where the nectar is located, and thus enables fertilisation.6

Some flowers, like the Lantana, let insects know of their pollen reward by changing colour.

Plants too know about the guiding function of the colours they possess. In fact, they deceive animals by employing this feature in a most conscious manner. Some plants which have no nectar use the colour features of nectar-producing flowers to attract insects to them. One very good example of this is the red cephelanthera, a species of orchid, and blue bellflowers which grow in forest regions in Mediterranean climates. While the the bellflowers give off a nectar which is most attractive to bees, the red cephelanthera does not possess the characteristics to do this. But it is the same wild bee, known locally as the "leafcutter," which carries out the fertilisation of both these totally different plants. While the leafcutter bees are fertilising the blue bellflowers, they feel the need to fertilise the red cephelanthera too. Bees fertilising a plant with no nectar attracted scientists' interest and they researched the reason for the bee's behaviour.

The answer to this question came as the result of research carried out with a device called a "spectrophotometer." From this it was realised that the leafcutter bees are unable to distinguish between the respective wavelengths of the light given off by the two different flowers. In other words, although human beings can distinguish between the light wavelengths given off by the blue bellflower and the red cephelanthera, since they can see the difference in colour between the flowers, wild bees cannot see the difference. Colour is an important factor for pollinators, and the bee, which goes to the blue bellflower, which gives off pollen, also visits and enables the fertilisation of the red cephelanthera which grows beside it, and which it sees as being the same colour. As we see, this orchid continues down the generations thanks to its "hidden resemblance" to blue bellflower.7

Some species of plant actually announce their pollen reward to insects by changing the colour of their blossoms. The following is an example:

Water lilies use Coleoptera (an insect order), sensitive to the colour white, to carry the pollen in their flowers which open on the water. The interesting thing in water lily pollination is that straight after fertilization this white turns to pink. For the Coleoptera, the change in colour of the flower means that the flower has been fertilized by another insect and that the pollen has been used up.

In a letter, naturalist Fritz Muller discussed a plant called Lantana, which grows in the Brazilian forests:
We have here a Lantana the flowers of which last three days, being yellow on the first, orange on the second, purple on the third. This plant is visited by various butterflies. As far as I have seen the purple flowers are never touched. Some species inserted their proboscis (mouth parts) both into yellow and orange flowers, others… exclusively into the yellow flowers of the first day. This is, I think, an interesting case. Of the flowers fell off at the end of the first day the inflorescence (flower) would be much less conspicuous, if they did not change their color much time would be much less conspicuous, if they did not change their color much time would be lost by the butterflies inserting their proboscis in already fertilized flowers.8
As Muller observed, the flower's changing colour is in the interests of both the plant and the pollinator. Plants whose flowers change colour offer the fertilising agents a lot of nectar when the flowers are young. As the flowers grow older, not only does their colour change, but they also contain less nectar. By correctly interpreting the color changes the pollinators save energy by not fruitlessly visiting plants which have little or no nectar.
Another of the methods which plants use to attract birds or insects is the scent given off by their flowers. Scents, which are just pleasant to us, actually serve to attract insects. The scent given off by flowers has the property of showing the way to the insects around it. When an insect smells the scent it realises that there is delicious nectar stored up for it nearly. It then heads straight for the source of the smell. When it reaches the flower, it will try to get the nectar and pollen will stick to it. The same insect will also leave behind pollen which stuck to it from another flower it visited, and will thus bring about fertilisation. It is not even aware of the important job it does. Its only aim is to reach the nectar it smells.

Plants' Deception Methods

We said that some plants use methods of deception. These plants do not have nectar with which to attract insects. These kinds of plants are fertilised by their making use of their similarities to insects. One species of orchid, the mirror orchid, possesses the shape and colour of a female bee in order to attract bees. This species of orchid is even able to give off a suitable chemical signal to attract male bees, and produces an effective pheromone (a special chemical).

The Cyprus bee orchid is another of the plants which imitate insects to ensure their fertilisation. The number of orchids employing this technique is quite large, and the methods used differ from one to the other. Some imitate a female bee with its head pointing upwards, others have the head pointing downwards. For example, the yellow bee orchid uses the second method. For this reason their modes of fertilisation differ.9

In the left picture is the Cyprus bee orchid, on the right is a male bee trying to fertilize the orchid because it thinks it is a female bee. The male bee tries to fertilize the orchid for a time. During this time, the pollen in the orchid's reproductive organ sticks to the bee's head. The bee will later go and pass this pollen on to other orchids in the same way. There is a harmony whose every detail has been very carefully planned between the orchids and the insects, and this cannot be explained by evolution. This harmony shows us that bees and orchids were created by God, in the same way as all other forms of life in the world.

Another species of orchid which imitates female bees is the dragon orchid. The lip of the dragon orchid's flower mimics the wingless female wasp so competently that only male wasps show any interest in them. Some members of the orchid family manage to attract insects to them, even if they have no nectar to offer. They secure the landing of male wasps on an area in the lower part of the flower by imitating the female wasp and giving off an attractive scent. The wasp which lands on the flower attempts to mate, and as a result, the orchid's pollinea are fixed on his body. Thanks to this deception, it deposits the pollen stuck on its body on another flower on which it lands with the same aim.10

A few examples of orchids which imitate bees, although there are many more of them. The interesting thing is that each of these flowers looks like a different type of bee. It would be ridiculous to claim that such perfect resemblances could have come about by chance. Orchids were created by God in possession of this feature.

Another plant which imitates the features of female animals is the hammer orchid. The reproductive mechanism of this orchid, which grows in dry grasslands of South Australia, is quite amazing. The hammer orchid has just one leaf, in the shape of a heart, and shows a total resemblance to the female wasp. While the male wasps fly, the females have no wings, and spend most of their time in the soil. When the time comes for the females to mate, they come out from under the ground so that the males can find them, and climb to the top of a tall plant stem. Once atop, they give off their mating smell and await the arrival of a male.
A special feature of the male wasps is that they reach the orchids two weeks before the females. This is a most interesting situation, because there are no female wasps around, only orchids which look just like female wasps and which are waiting for fertilisation. And when the male wasps come to the orchids, they smell an odour similar to that given off by female wasps. This is emitted by the orchid. Under the influence of this smell, the male wasps land on the orchid leaves. This triggers the plant's spring-loaded 'elbow' joint causing the wasp to fall on its reproductive organ. While the wasp attempts to escape from the flower, two pollen-laden sacs stick to the back of its head or to its back. In this way, when the wasp goes to other orchids, the pollen stuck to its back serves to fertilise them.11 As we have seen, there is a most harmonious relationship between the hammer orchid and the wasp. This symbiosis is most important for the reproduction of the plant. Because if successful pollination did not take place, in other words, if the pollen were not to be transported from the insect to another plant of the same species, then fertilisation would not take place.

A male wasp tries to mate with a flower which it has mistaken for a female wasp. This deception is completely natural because some orchids do not just imitate female wasps' colour, shape, and fur-covered lower regions, they also imitate the scent given off by female wasps.

There are many examples in nature of such accord as exists between the hammer orchid and the wild bees. Sometimes differences between flowers can be the reason for such a relationship. For example, it is very easy for some insects to enter some flowers, because that part of the flower where the pollen lies is open, and insects and bees can easily enter these regions and reach the pollen. Some plants have a nectar entrance of such a size as can be entered only by certain animals. For instance, in some situations bees push themselves through these gaps so as to reach the nectar in the flower. It is very difficult, even impossible, for other living things to do what the bee does so very easily.

Bees and other insects, on the other hand, are unable to fertilise flowers with long corolla (petals) tubes. Only long-tongued insects, such as butterflies and moths can fertilise these flowers.12

As we have seen from all these examples, there is a totally flawless harmony between insects, whose bodily structure is entirely suited to that of the plants, and the plants themselves.
It is impossible for the reciprocity in such a "lock and key" relationship to have come about by chance, as the evolutionists claim. Which means that to expect this to come about by chance contradicts the logic of the theory of evolution as maintained by evolutionists. According to the evolutionists' claims about natural selection, a life form which is not adapted to its environment either has to develop new mechanisms within itself or must slowly disappear. In this situation, according to the mechanism of natural selection, these plants, not being fertilizable by insects by reason of their particular flower structure, would either have disappeared or have had to change the form of their flowers. And in the same way, insects which can fertilise only these flowers because of the structure of their mouths, would either have disappeared for lack of food or have changed the structure of the organs they use to gather food.
But when we look at plants with long corolla tubes, or other plants, we see that they have developed no adaptation, in other words, a change or other supplementary mechanism. Again, no adaptation of any sort is to be seen in living creatures such as butterflies and moths.
These flowers, benefiting from a symbiotic relationship with the pollinators which fertilise them, have carried on living for many years, right up to the present.
What has been explained so far is just a short summary of methods employed by some different species of plant to survive down the generations. You will find all these details in any biology book, but those same sources are unable to provide a satisfactory explanation of the reasons for plants employing this pollen dispersal process. Because in every process carried out, features such as thought, reasoning, decision-making, and calculation-that we cannot ascribe to plants-are in evidence: we all know that a plant does not have the consciousness to perform such activities. Imagine the scenario we should be faced with if we said that a plant carried out all these processes of its own volition:
The plant "calculates" that its aerodynamic structure is suited to pollen dispersal by wind, and every subsequent generation employs the same method. Others "understand" that they will not be able to make sufficient use of the wind and, for this reason, make use of insects to carry their pollen. They "know" that they have to attract insects to themselves in order to be able to multiply, and try various methods to bring this about. They particularly identify what insects like. After finding which nectar and scents are effective for which insects, they produce scents by a variety of chemical processes and give them off when they have established the exact time to do so. They identify the taste in the nectar that insects will find pleasant and the totality of the substances in it, and produce these themselves. If the scent and nectar are not enough to draw insects to them, they decide to try another method, and, to suit this situation, make "deceptive imitations". Furthermore, they "calculate" the volume of pollen which will reach another plant of the same species and also the distance it has to travel, and on the basis of this, begin to produce it in the most suitable quantities and at the most appropriate time. They "think" of the possibilities that might prevent the pollen from reaching its destination and "take precautions" against them.

Some flowers open at night and so are fertilized by nocturnal creatures. One of the creatures which fertilize flowers at night are bats, which feed on the nectar in plants. The white, greenish, and purple flowers fertilized by bats at night have such a strong smell that bats, which are blind and fly in the dark, can easily find them. These flowers also produce great quantities of nectar. We see there is a perfect harmony between the two. There is no doubt that the creator of this harmony is God, the Compassionate and Merciful.13 The yucca has a rosette of spear-shaped leaves from the centre of which rises a mast bearing cream-coloured flowers. The special feature of the yucca is that its pollen is in a curved region. For this reason only this moth with a specially curved proboscis can gather the pollen from the plant's male reproductive organs. The moth moulds the pollen into a ball and takes this to another yucca flower. First it goes to the bottom of the flower and lays its own eggs. Then it climbs back up to the top of the stigma and rams the pollen ball into the top. The plant has not been fertilised. The yuccas could never set seed if there were no moths.14

Of course, such a scenario could not ever be a reality: in fact, this scenario breaks all the rules of logic. None of the above-mentioned strategies could be devised by an ordinary plant, because a plant cannot reason, cannot calculate time, cannot determine size and shape, cannot calculate the strength and direction of the wind, cannot determine for itself what kind of techniques it will need for fertilisation, cannot think that it will have to attract an insect it has never seen, and furthermore, cannot decide what methods it will need to be able to do any or all of these things.
No matter how much the details multiply, from what direction the subject is approached, and what logic is employed, the conclusion that there is something extraordinary in the relationship between plants and animals will not change.

In some flowers the nectar is hidden deep. This looks like a handicap to insects and birds gathering the nectar, in other words to the fertilization of the flower. Whereas it is not so for the flowers. Because God has made these plants' fertilization possible by creating creatures with features suitable for obtaining the deep-hidden pollen.

These living things were created in harmony with one another. This flawless system of mutual benefit shows us that the force which created both flowers and insects knows both kinds of living things very well, is aware of all their needs, and created them to be complementary to one another. Both living things are the work of the Lord of all the worlds, God, who knows them very well, who indeed knows everything. They are charged with presenting God's greatness, His supreme power, and His flawless art to men.
A plant has no knowledge of its own existence, nor of the miraculous functions it performs, because it is under the control of God, who planned its every feature, who created everything in the universe, and who continues to create at every moment. This truth is announced to us by God in the Qur'an:

Shrubs and trees both bow down in prostration (to Him). (Surat ar-Rahman: 6)