Speculations on Flowers

Michael Pollan writes:

Ophryus orchids look uncannily like insects [. . .] The flower has evolved exactly the right pattern of curves and spots and hariness to convince certain male insects that it is a female as viewed, tantalizingly, from behind. Botanist call the resultant behavior on the part of the male insect "pseudocopulation"; they call the flower that inspires this behavior the "prostitute orchid." In his frenzy of attempted intercourse, the insect ensures the orchid's pollination. That's because the insect's rising frustration compels him to rush around mounting one blossom after another, effectively disseminnating the flower's genes, if not his own. --70

In this chapter, Pollan reflects on the tulip's ability to fashion human definitions of beauty. While doing so, he manages to weave banal western gendered metaphors into his subtext of "nature" (ie. woman's/feminity's comparison to nature)--which I find quite annoying. Yet, his allusion to the connection between "beauty" and the expectaion of "pleasure" being fullfilled may be quite, er, fruitful.