Talk:Column (botany)

Can anyone, please, correct English spelling and grammar of this draft? Thanks, Dalton Holland Baptista 00:41, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Well done

Clap, clap, clap. A warm round of applause. But I guess that was too easy! Now you got rid of me. I will not follow you anymore during this party. I promise. Thanks, Aleta. Looks great, I'm not ashamed of my draft anymore. Dalton Holland Baptista 04:57, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Ha! Well, don't applaud too loudly, because I want to do some more copy editing: for example, my biological knowledge was not adequate to fixing the third paragraph.

I'm going to attempt some more cleanup, and I will post queries here. Meanwhile, if I change the meaning of anything, do change it back, or post what you mean to say in a different way, and in this manner we may arrive at a grammatically and scientifically correct article!

Aleta Curry 23:31, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Deal! meanwhile I have good news, I downloaded an English spell checker to Firefox. Now I can pretend I actually know how to write in English, Oh Well, there are always the mysterious prepositions! Dalton Holland Baptista 23:40, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

'Ere we go!

Questions

1. What exactly is the lif and what structure is it part of? The column, the foot, the mentum…? 2. Do you mean to say that a column always ends in a foot, and that these may be long or shot? How to the arms keep pollinators on the right track? Do they actually guide the insects, do they provide signposts/signals, what? Re: “other times they hold the labellum in a particular posision after it is touched by pollinators making its access easier.” Making whose access easier? i.e. easier for the pollinators? But they’re already there, so I don’t quite understand.

'Ere we go!

Questions

1. What exactly is the lif and what structure is it part of? The column, the foot, the mentum…?

2. Do you mean to say that a column always ends in a foot, and that these may be long or shot? How to the arms keep pollinators on the right track? Do they actually guide the insects, do they provide signposts/signals, what? Re: “other times they hold the labellum in a particular position after it is touched by pollinators making its access easier.” Making whose access easier? i.e. easier for the pollinators? But they’re already there, so I don’t quite understand.

Answers (which you may rephrase and add to the text if you will).

1. (Do you mean lip, right?) it is the same thing as labellum English speakers say lip what they informally talk. labellum is the fancy (technically correct word) word. The lip (labellum) is a modified petal it is the pouch on lady's slippers usually the showy part of the flower (see more on Orchid morphology section flowers subsection)

2. Columns not always have a foot. Some do; and, yes, when there is a foot it may be short or long, even very long. Well, I guess I have to provide more photos with captions of the column parts. The arms, wings or whatever are the lateral appendixes on the column (they not always exist) may be several different shapes and, depending on the shape, the use. For instance, in Encyclia species the labellum has lateral lobes which embrace the column. When the right insect lands on the labellum (lip) its weight bents it a little down, so the lateral lobes get trapped(held) by the column arms and cannot go back to their original position. Why? because there is no room enough between the lip and the column to the insects to go in, when the lip is down, it will work like a door with the exact size of the pollinator the flower need. In Oncidium flowers usually the wings look like feathers and their purposes are to make the column showy to insects working like a target. in other genera the wings may work lead to the right area because they form a species of tunnel with the lip so the pollinator cannot go turn to the sides.

3. The position of the sexual organs of orchids are usually hidden or protected so just the right pollinators can reach them. So when you say it is already there... just sort of...if it is not the right one nothing will be accessible. Mentum is a chin only visible for the lateral or back of the flower it is located below the ovary. Dalton Holland Baptista 00:25, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Labellum

Every orchid flower has one labellum, this is one the characteristics of being and orchid. It is always present. What I mean is that almost always it has a key role helping with pollination, but for few species they are not that important. Dalton Holland Baptista 00:43, 5 March 2009 (UTC)