Main Content
King Spider Orchid
Photograph by Christian Ziegler
Following a perfume trail to its source, male wasps in Australia ravish a king spider orchid. Sure the red "lip" is a mate, they rub against it; one will take away the plant's pollen. Every orchid has a petal modified for pollination, some theatrically so.
See more photographs from the September 2009 National Geographic feature story "Love and Lies."