One hand washes the other
The bucket orchid is a fascinating flower where it acts to help a bee on it’s path to find a mate, but at the same time uses the bee to help the orchid propagate
Explaining through stories is a powerful way to convey a message to audiences. This is a short story from the StoryBank publication that you can use next time in your presentation to convey your message.
The Story
In order for male orchid bees (formal name Euglossini) to attract a mate, they need to collect as much perfume as possible from flowers. The more perfume they have, the higher the perception of their genetic quality from female orchid bees as it is quite a difficult task to collect the perfumes.
One primary source of perfumes are from bucket orchids(Coryanthes orchid). They secret an oily substance at the top of the flower which drops into a bucket like area at the bottom of the flower. When the bees try to get to the the top of the flower, they often fall into the bucket due to the waxy walls.
Inside the sticky oil filled bucket of the orchid, the bees are trapped in the little well and can only crawl out from one tunnel opening. When they go through the tunnel, the bucket orchid constricts the channel in order to press it’s pollen sack on to the back of the bee. The gluey substance to stick the pollen to the back of the bee takes some time to set, so the flower can press against the beer for up to an hour. Once the pollen is glued on, the tunnel walls relax and the bee is free to fly away. During the whole process, the perfume has already rubbed against the bee. Despite the ordeal the bee has come out with what he was after.
If and when the bee goes to the next bucket orchid to gather more perfume, the hope is that it will again try to go to the epicenter and again fall into the bucket. As the bee exits this time, the pollen from the original plant on his back will get stuck to the orchid and a seed will form.
Using the story / Key Messages
- One hand washes the other
- There are ways that both of you can get what you want
- There can be a price to pay (being trapped in the bucket) in order to get what you need from someone
- In order to show your strength, you need to have as many trophy’s as possible
References
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