Because of the remoteness of this plant, it has taken scientists some time to full understand this plant. This plant uses insects to pollinate and reproduce, but this ca be debated because of the amount of insects and life at the altitude the Elderwiss is located, but such research that can contradict this has not yet been found.
This plant attracts insects by the sweet honey like smell of its nectar, but this only occurs when weather is favourable. The insect that has been found to be the most common visitor is the Musciade fly. This can be proven by the huge amounts of pollen taken from the clones( explained below) as it cannot be from a small insect. When any insects visit the plant, they land in the middle of the 'clone', then travel around the the flowering sections as the soft white petals are not actually part of the flower. Insects are know to spend up to 15 minutes on a single 'clone', which shows why not many insects are required by the plant to help with reproduction, as this alone is enough to create adequate seedlings. A single flowers produces only one seed, which requires aproximatly 20-30 days to fully germinate once transferred to a new locations. But one seed produced a whole shrub, as the plant has no stems the single seed produces a reasonable sized plant. |