Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Yucca love. A giclee print from original collage by Kate Watters
Yucca moths and yucca plants depend on one another for survival in a delicate balance. Their mutualism is an evolutionary agreement. A female moth collects a pollen spitball from one yucca flower, and then she carries it to a different, unpollinated plant, ovipositing her eggs deep in the ovary of the flower. The yucca moth then stuffs the spitball into the plant’s stigma, in an act of direct pollination. When the eggs hatch, the fertilized flowers will have made seeds and fruit for the caterpillars to eat and the yucca has enough seeds to create new offspring.
One cannot exist without the other.
Yucca love. A giclee print from original collage by Kate Watters
Yucca moths and yucca plants depend on one another for survival in a delicate balance. Their mutualism is an evolutionary agreement. A female moth collects a pollen spitball from one yucca flower, and then she carries it to a different, unpollinated plant, ovipositing her eggs deep in the ovary of the flower. The yucca moth then stuffs the spitball into the plant’s stigma, in an act of direct pollination. When the eggs hatch, the fertilized flowers will have made seeds and fruit for the caterpillars to eat and the yucca has enough seeds to create new offspring.
One cannot exist without the other.