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Fungi have been discovered making fake flowers that look and even smell the real thing, fooling bees and other pollinating insects into showing them around.
The mushroom Fusarium xyrophilum infects the beautiful yellow-eyed grasses of Xyris from Guyana in South America. The fungus stops the plant from making its flowers, and then hijacks the plant’s reproductive system to create its own counterfeits made entirely of fungal tissue.
False flowers are similar in size and shape with petal-like characteristics that reflect ultraviolet light to attract pollinators, especially bees. Fake flowers even use scents to make themselves even more attractive.
The fraud is so convincing that bees and other pollinators visit them, expecting to be rewarded with nectar and pollen, but instead, they are covered in fungal spores, which they unwittingly carry away to others. other Xyris plants and infect them.
This type of hoax is not unique, but it is by far the most elaborate fungal mimicry known. The leaves of blueberries can be infected with Monilinia fungi, turning leaves into hoax flowers that reflect ultraviolet light, give off a fragrant scent, and ooze sugar to attract insects that normally pollinate plants, but instead wash away fungal spores.
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