Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 12:46:27 +0100 From: Paul Temple <paultemple@ecologycal.demon.co.uk> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1579$foo@default> Subject: Re: nasty Broms
>Also, Hi Paul,
Hi Richard!
>Just wondering why the birds would enter the vase of these
>Bromeliads? For a bath or a drink I guess? OUCH!!
Well Puya don't really have a vase (in a desert a vase holding water
would not be a strategy for success!!!) so there is no standing water
pool to take advantage of. There are a few possibilities as to why
birds still enter them. It could be to hunt for insects or other bugs
that could serve as food. It could be simply as a perch, after all,
even birds get tired and need somewhere to hang about! Or it could be
for shade as Puya offer more of this than, say, a columnar cactus
(though if someone said that to me I could argue the point!). Perhaps
people can suggest other reasons. However, birds do enter the "trap",
it's not a "one off" phenomenon.
>And, is the black layer on the inside walls of Cephalotus traps
>caused by dense photosynthetic pigments or something else?
Actually I don't know - I shall see if anything I have describes
this.[short pause to ceck literature] - no, nothing I've got describes
this. However,m I see where you're leading (I think) and the question
needs an answer from someone.
Cheers
Paul
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