There are many variations of giant philodendron growing in the small ranch where I am living in Sao Paulo. They clamber up trees, they make impressive masses on the ground. I love these plants for their exuberance and their beauty. Some of them, sporting the name of Monstera deliciosa also produce a fruit that most people do not know are edible. They taste like a cross of pineaple and jackfruit. The other night, I found out about another aspect of these plants that most of us know only as exotic houseplants, relegated way-too-small pots in the northern hemisphere, and as decorative garden monsters in tropical climes. Their sex-life is the stuff of headlines. It all started one night when the ever-present beetles that buzz around the veranda lights like small helicopters were around in unprecedented numbers, making quite a racket as they buzzed and bumped against walls, doors, windows and roof. The noise was enough to warrant investigation, even at the risk of being peppered by the flying beasties. Just outside the veranda there is a Philodendron Bininnatifidum plant, full of unopened flowers.
It was quite by accident that I noticed that one of the flowers was opening. These flowers, 3040cm long are by themselves quite an event. The sexual suggestiveness of the shapes is quite clear, even by human standards. I always wondered about what appears to be shared appearances of sexual organs across various living organisms, plants included.
This flower was not to disappoint. I also noticed that there were what appeared to be dark objects in the flower. Upon closer examination, these objects turned out to be dozens of these beetles, in apparent stupor. piled one upon the other, filling all the empty space inside the
flower. When i shone a light on the flower, some of them moved about a bit, some even falling to the ground below.
I had never seems anything like it. After making some photographs, I set about doing some research on this event. This proved to be the stuff of tabloid headlines. "SLEAZY FLORAL NIGHTCLUB LURES BEETLES" was the headline of an article from the ABC network in Australia. The article goes on: "When South American scarab beetles want a hot date they head for a bizarre flower that offers a steamy nightclub atmosphere, according to a new study. The chamber is complete with heady perfume, sex hungry mates, ample food and a quiet place to sleep it off the next day." "As night falls, the flower heats up and its scent attracts many beetles. They quickly head into the shrouded chamber and spend the night energetically mating and feeding. The temperature inside the chamber can be several degrees Celsius warmer than the night air. As they move around, the pollen they carry on their bodies from another flower fertilises the female florets. The beetles then sleep it off in the chamber the next day while the male florets rapidly mature and produce their pollen.
Just before dusk the flower contracts its shroud tightly, forcing the beetles out to avoid being crushed. As the partygoers leave, their bodies are dusted with its own pollen, which they then carry to the next receptive flower to repeat the cycle there." Aside from the obvious similarities to spring break college parties, complete with intoxicants, food and sex, what's this about the plant heating up? Another article, this time from the Los Angeles Times, sports the headline:
The next evening the stalk heats up again, but this time to only about 32 degrees C, and the beetles resume dining and cavorting. The result is a bunch of beetles covered inside and out with pollen. Finally, they fly off to another plant, possibly as far as a mile away, and the ritual resumes." WOW!
This degree of interspecies communication and collaboration, this complexity and attention to detail is truly mind expanding! It is all around us, if we choose to perceive it. These linkages, more or less formalized, are the basis of the life outlooks of many indigenous cultures, while modern humanity tends to be isolationist, its outlook eclipsed by modernist ideologies, negating the links that weave all living beings together, and denying the possibilities offered by what surrounds us. What has become defined as consciousness has become defined as a characteristic that separates humanity from other living organisms and has led to the severance of links with the biosphere. Some pioneering artists, such as Eduardo Kac, explore the possibilities of "being interspecies" and interspecies communication, and the realm of the arts is an avenue that places the re-establishment of these links in a promising context, for it is something that must be truly existential, if it is to be successful.