Private Life of Plants Part 5 Living Together Film

  1. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is made up from coral. Corals are similar to plants in that they need light to live. During the day Coral use Algae symbionts to manufacture food for both. Giant Calms also use Algae in a symbiosis relationship.
  2. Pilau Island in the South Pacific has a lake in which lives colonies of specialized Jellyfish that use algae in symbiosis rather than having stinging cells to hunt for food as do other Jellyfish.
  3. African Acacia Trees use thorns to discourage herbivores. Many of their thorns are hollow and colonies of ants live in them. The plants rewards the ants with nectar to live there. The ants protect the tree leaves from herbivorous insects, etc..
  4. The Ant Plant of New Guinea is hollow and ants colonies live on the inside. The ant droppings and rotting dead provide nutrients for the plan. It is an interesting symbiosis.
  5. Conifers (Gymnosperms) have their roots associated with fungi. The fungi help the tree by increasing root surface area so they can absorb water and nutrients better. The trees manufacture food which is used by the fungi. There are about 1,000 species of fungi in such forest regions of the world. These fungi may produce fruiting bodies (reproductive structures) only once in a twenty years or more.
  6. Orchids depend upon fungi to germinate their seeds. Orchid seed will not germinate if not covered by specific fungi.
  7. Lichens are a combination of a fungus and algae. There are @ 13,000 known species. They grow very
    slowly sometimes only a few millimeters in hundreds of years.
  8. In the Namib Desert of south Africa the ground is covered with orange lichens. Fog provides the only source of water for these lichens. Lichens produce osmic acid which dissolves rock.
  9. The are about 1,000 species of Mistletoe. Of that number @ 75 occur in Australia. Mistletoe seed are spread by the Mistletoe Bird. The seeds are sticky and when they pass through the digestive tract of the bird it wipes on tree limbs sticking the seeds in place.
  10. Dodder is a parasite on Nettle in Europe and America. It twines around the host plant and then attaches and drains nutrients from the nettle.
  11. In Borneo Raffelesia is the world’s largest single flower. One bloom may be three feet across. It smells like rotting flesh and attracts Blow Flies as pollinators. The whole plant is a parasite of certain forest vines. The only evidence of the plant is when it flowers.